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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 Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court 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 hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day window. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a similar request to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the DOJ now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.