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

Court Order Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

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 release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day window. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to unseal records 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 Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• 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 found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

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