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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the public release of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation requires the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

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 comparable petition to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

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

The government has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

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

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

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.