A Manhattan federal judge has granted the Justice Department’s request to unseal secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein‘s 2019 sex trafficking investigation.
US District Judge Richard M. Berman on Wednesday reversed his earlier decision to keep the materials under wraps, marking what appears to be the final unlocking of one of the most scrutinized criminal cases in recent history.
Within a span of just days, the last major doors have swung open. Berman joined two other federal judges who made similar rulings this week in the Ghislaine Maxwell case in New York and the Epstein Florida investigation dating to the 2000s.
It is unclear when the materials from the New York and Florida grand juries will be made public. DOJ attorneys said they ‘will work with the relevant US Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.
The breakthrough follows passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law by Donald Trump last month, which compels the Justice Department to release all investigative records by December 19 – less than ten days away.
Congress‘s mandate effectively overrode the traditional wall of grand jury secrecy that had kept the documents hidden.
Trump’s second term has been dominated by questions about the Epstein files – with pressure intensifying on the president after he reneged on a campaign promise to release the files.
Trump – who was a longtime associate of Epstein from the 1990s through the early 2000s – earlier this year ordered the release of some material, most of it already public, disappointing critics and prominent allies like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Donald Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000
The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed by Congress on November 19 before being signed by Trump that same day.
The judges’ orders cover not only grand jury transcripts but also discovery materials, witness testimony, and investigative records from both New York and Florida – the two jurisdictions where Epstein was prosecuted.
Defense lawyers and prosecutors had fought to keep much of this material sealed for years.
Judge Berman previously cautioned that the 70 or so pages of grand jury materials slated for release are hardly revelatory and ‘pale in comparison’ with the files held by the FBI.
The materials will be released with redactions protecting victims’ names and identifying information, as required by the transparency act.
Epstein was indicted on sex trafficking charges in July 2019 but was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell the following month while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 after prosecutors presented evidence that she groomed vulnerable girls as young as 14 for abuse by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year sentence.
In August, Judges Berman and Paul A Engelmayer in Manhattan denied the DOJ’s requests to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Epstein and Maxwell cases, ruling that such disclosures are rarely, if ever, allowed.
Engelmayer on Tuesday is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records.
Last Friday, a judge in Florida granted the department’s request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein in 2006.
Trump repeatedly called the Epstein files a Democrat ‘hoax’ in recent months despite campaigning on a pledge to release the documents once in office.
The president explosively fell out with Republican firebrand Taylor Greene – one of his most loyal allies in the House – after she ferociously attacked the administration, claiming that they were withholding the files.
A Manhattan federal judge has granted the Justice Department’s request to unseal secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein ‘s 2019 sex trafficking investigation
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 after prosecutors presented evidence that she groomed vulnerable girls as young as 14 for abuse by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year sentence
The crisis deepened last month when the House Oversight Committee released a tranche of Epstein emails which included frequent mentions of Trump.
Epstein, a New York financier who owned a home in Palm Beach, was a member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club until he was thrown out for ‘creepy’ behavior towards young women in around 2006.
Virginia Giuffre, who worked at Mar-a-Lago, was scouted by Maxwell and trafficked to Epstein, who went on to fly her around the world, introducing her to luminaries including Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton.
Giuffre, who killed herself in April, absolved Trump of any wrongdoing in her memoir.