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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits 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 comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day window. The legislation mandates the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to release once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a 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 convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

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

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

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