A federal judge on Monday refused the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury materials used to charge Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime accomplice of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Trump administration looked to break the normal secrecy of grand jury proceedings amid mounting public pressure, including from much of the president’s political base, to release more files on the case.
“Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it,” U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in his 31-page ruling.
“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.”
Engelmayer is an appointee of former President Obama. The administration has made a similar request in Epstein’s case, which remains pending and will be handled by a different federal judge.
Pressure has mounted on President Trump’s administration to release more documents after the Justice Department and FBI released a joint memo last month indicating Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019 and had no incriminating client list.
The apparent effort to counter right-wing conspiracies about Epstein’s death was met with a rare rebuke from MAGA influencers, who have pushed for more disclosures given Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comment in February that a client list was “sitting on my desk right now.”
As the issue dominated public attention, the Justice Department last month moved to unseal grand jury materials related to Maxwell and Epstein with redactions to protect victims’ confidentiality.
Grand jury proceedings generally remain secret, but judges can make the transcripts and exhibits public when special circumstances exist. The administration cited an abundant public interest in the case.
Maxwell opposed unsealing, while representatives for Epstein’s estate took no position. Several of their victims also submitted letters to the court that generally supported unsealing but raised concerns about the government’s motivations.
The judge on Monday said he reviewed those letters, but they were based on the administration’s mistaken premise that the documents would review new information. Engelmayer said that was “demonstrably false.”
“The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote.
Engelmayer is the second judge to deny the government’s unsealing requests. A judge in Florida previously declined to release grand jury materials related to an investigation Epstein faced there in the 2000s.
But another judge in New York has yet to rule on whether to unseal grand jury materials used to indict Epstein in 2019 shortly before his death.
Updated 10:17 a.m.
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