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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the DOJ to release 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 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 the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail 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 government has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys 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 related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s.

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