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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury records and evidence 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 comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day window. The legislation mandates the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a similar request to release transcripts 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 remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities 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 FOIA requests.

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

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