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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the public release of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day window. The legislation mandates the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to release 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 further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination 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 lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.