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A U.S. judge has determined that the Department of Justice can proceed with the public release of investigative materials 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 Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

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

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida 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 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 extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased 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 serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served over a year in a jail work-release program.