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A U.S. judge has determined that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s.

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

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the extensive probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested 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 found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting 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 different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA 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 federal probe ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.