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A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the public release of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day window. The legislation requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

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

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing 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 materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is 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 explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered 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 then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a work-release program.