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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out 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 Document Disclosure

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 Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to release once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration.

Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this disclosure when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

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

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