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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of investigative materials 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 issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged 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
• Data from digital devices
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy 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 sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

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

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s.

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