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Judge allows Justice Department to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case records
A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from the sex trafficking case involving Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the decision Tuesday after the department requested in November that grand jury transcripts, exhibits, and related investigative materials from the Maxwell and Epstein cases be unsealed, potentially adding hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents to the public record.
The ruling follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates that the Justice Department make Epstein-related records available in a searchable format by Dec. 19. This decision marks the second time a judge has approved the unsealing of previously confidential Epstein-related court materials, following a Florida judge’s approval last week to release transcripts from a long-abandoned federal grand jury investigation in the 2000s. Requests to release records from Epstein’s 2019 federal sex trafficking case remain pending.
The Justice Department’s expanded release will cover 18 categories of materials, including search warrants, financial documents, survivor interview notes, electronic device data, and records from prior investigations in Florida. Officials said they are working with survivors and their attorneys to redact sensitive information, protect identities, and prevent the dissemination of sexualized content.
Parties invited to comment on the release included Maxwell, the Epstein estate, and accusers. Maxwell’s legal team noted that unsealing materials could jeopardize her potential habeas petition and a fair retrial if that request succeeds. The Epstein estate took no position, while at least one survivor, Annie Farmer, expressed support for transparency, emphasizing the importance of revealing crucial information about Epstein’s crimes.
Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021, is serving a 20-year sentence and was transferred this year from a Florida federal prison to a facility in Texas. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and died by suicide in a federal jail a month later.
The Justice Department’s request significantly enlarges the scope of materials to be released, building on tens of thousands of pages already made public through lawsuits, Freedom of Information Act requests, and prior disclosures. Much of the material stems from law enforcement investigations in Palm Beach, Florida, during the mid-2000s, including the federal and state probes that culminated in Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal, which allowed him to serve 13 months in a work-release jail program instead of facing federal prosecution.
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