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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including civil cases, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served over a year in a jail work-release program.