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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the public release 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 made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to make public grand jury records 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 follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

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

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended 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 evidence gathered during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal 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 serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit 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 DOJ now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.