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A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure 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 issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to make public grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

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

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the DOJ to release once-confidential 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 early 2000s.

A separate request 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 intended this unsealing when it enacted the transparency act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into 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 charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.