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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.

Court Order Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

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

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a similar request to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

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

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

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

Much of the evidence the DOJ now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

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