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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the public release of investigative materials 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 DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day window. 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 permit the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request to unseal records 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 is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison 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 consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

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