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

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

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

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition 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 Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking 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 related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

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

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