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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 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 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 documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody 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 serving a two-decade sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

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

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

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