A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury materials from the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case.
The Justice Department has sought to release grand jury testimony and exhibits from cases involving Jeffrey Epstein in New York.
Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a scathing opinion, saying unsealing the materials in Maxwell’s case is not a matter of historical or public interest.
“The Court therefore denies the Government’s motion to unseal at the threshold. Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it,” Engelmayer wrote.
Engelmayer also pointed to the fact that much of the grand jury material that the DOJ is seeking has already been public and was presented during Maxwell’s trial in 2021.
“It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents. And the information it contains is already almost entirely a matter of longstanding public record, principally as a result of live testimony by percipient witnesses at the 2021 Maxwell trial,” Engelmayer wrote.
The judge also said that it was clear the government was not familiar with the Maxwell trial record, “because a number of details that it identified as non-public in fact had been testified to during the trial.”
“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not
contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion – aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.”
On Friday, the Justice Department had asked both the judges overseeing its requests in Maxwell and Epstein’s cases to refrain from ruling on sealing grand jury materials until August 14. DOJ explained to the court that it notified victims in the case to the extent their names appeared in transcripts and exhibits and wanted time for the victims to receive the notice.
Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the request for grand jury transcripts and exhibits in Epstein’s case, has not ruled on the motion yet.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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