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A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the public release 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 issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day window. The legislation requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the DOJ to release previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

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

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested 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 found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining 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 evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates 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 confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a jail work-release program.