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A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the release of grand jury transcripts and other sealed materials from Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking case, citing a new federal transparency law requiring the Justice Department to open its files on Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate. But he warned the disclosures are unlikely to shed fresh light on the broader scandal that has fueled years of speculation.
U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, who previously rejected similar unsealing bids before the law’s passage last month, said the records “do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor” and “do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s.” He added that the documents do not reveal any previously unknown methods used in the pair’s crimes.
The ruling came after the Justice Department asked courts in New York and Florida to lift secrecy orders in the wake of the Epstein Files Transparency Act — legislation President Donald Trump signed after months of political pressure and missed disclosure deadlines. A separate request to unseal records from Epstein’s 2019 federal sex-trafficking case remains pending.
Engelmayer is the second judge to act since the law created narrow exceptions to the longstanding rules governing grand jury secrecy. Last week, a federal judge in Florida ordered the release of transcripts from an abandoned Epstein grand jury investigation conducted in the mid-2000s.
Justice Department preparing sweeping release
The new law requires the Justice Department to make Epstein-related investigative materials public by Dec. 19. The department has told courts it plans to disclose documents across 18 categories of evidence, including search-warrant files, financial records, victim interviews and data extracted from seized electronic devices.
The fate of the sealed records has dominated Trump’s first year back in office. After campaigning on a promise to fully release the files, his administration began publishing some information early this year — almost all already public — before abruptly stopping in July after pledging that “a truckload” of records was forthcoming.
Privacy safeguards, pending redactions
Engelmayer said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton must personally certify that the materials have been “rigorously reviewed” to protect victims’ privacy and prevent the release of sexualized images. The Justice Department said it is currently conferring with victims and their lawyers about necessary redactions.
Maxwell’s attorney urged the judge not to unseal the transcripts, arguing the disclosures could jeopardize her planned habeas petition seeking to overturn her conviction. Releasing the material now, attorney David Markus wrote, “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial.” The Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal in October.
Victims push for full transparency
Annie Farmer, one of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s most prominent accusers, championed the transparency law and supports public access to the sealed materials. Through her attorney, Sigrid S. McCawley, Farmer warned that continued secrecy could be used “as a pretext or excuse for continuing to withhold crucial information concerning Epstein’s crimes.”
Engelmayer and Judge Richard M. Berman had denied similar DOJ requests in August, saying grand jury disclosures are almost never permitted. Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already come out through civil litigation, FOIA releases and prior court orders.
Extensive prior investigations
Many of the records the Justice Department expects to release originate from investigations by Palm Beach police and the U.S. attorney’s office there, which examined Epstein’s conduct in the mid-2000s. Last year, a Florida judge ordered the release of roughly 150 pages of transcripts from a state grand jury that investigated Epstein in 2006.
Another federal judge in Florida on Dec. 5 ordered transcripts unsealed from a separate federal grand jury that scrutinized Epstein at the time. That probe ended in 2008 with a secret plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge of soliciting prostitution. He served 13 months in a work-release program that drew heavy criticism years later.
Epstein was arrested again in 2019 and died by suicide in federal custody a month later. Maxwell, convicted in 2021, is serving a 20-year sentence and was transferred this year from a Florida federal prison to a federal prison camp in Texas.
