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A federal judge has determined that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. 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 Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a similar request 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 criminal case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it enacted the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody 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 found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s.

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