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A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of case files 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 make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation requires the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to release previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range 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
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody 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 convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.