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A federal 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 Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to release previously secret Epstein court records. 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 criminal case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a 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 officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

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

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.