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A U.S. 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 made the decision 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 action could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida 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 is still under consideration.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the extensive probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from prior probes 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 officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking 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 safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

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