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A U.S. judge has determined 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 Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

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

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to release once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence 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 federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently 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 sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

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

Much of the material the DOJ now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.