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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request 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 records could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition 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.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed 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 wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested 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.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-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 13 months in a jail work-release program.