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

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day window. The legislation requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a similar request to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a two-decade sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys 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 lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the DOJ now plans to release originates from photos, videos, and reports collected 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 ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.