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A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day period. The legislation requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a comparable petition to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the DOJ now plans to release originates from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.