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

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way 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 Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day window. The legislation requires the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s.

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

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it enacted the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

A significant number of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

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