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

Court Order Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department formally requested in November to make public grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day window. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a similar request to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

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

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

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

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased 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 federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.