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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Clears the Path 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 exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

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

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the transparency act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

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