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A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of investigative materials 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 DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records 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 judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day window. The new law requires the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release 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 extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related 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 protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including civil cases, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now plans to release originates from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

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