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A U.S. judge has determined that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

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

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

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition 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 Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• 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 prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

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

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including civil cases, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered 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 allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed over a year in a jail work-release program.