Washington — A federal judge in New York on Wednesday declined the federal government's request to unseal grand jury material in the case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying prosecutors had failed to demonstrate that "special circumstances" warranted their disclosure.
Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued his ruling in a 14-page decision denying the government's motion to unseal the documents.
Berman wrote that the grand jury material in question includes the testimony of just a single witness, an FBI agent "who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay." The documents the government was seeking to unseal included roughly 70 pages of transcripts of the agent's two presentations to the grand jury, a PowerPoint exhibit and a call log.
Berman noted that the Justice Department's files on Epstein dwarf those stemming from the grand jury. Proceedings before grand juries are typically kept secret.
"A significant and compelling reason to reject the Government's position in this litigation is that the Government has already undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the Epstein case and, not surprisingly, has assembled a 'trove' of Epstein documents, interviews, and exhibits. And, the Government committed that it would share its Epstein investigation materials with the public," Berman wrote.
"The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files. By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a 'diversion' from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government's possession," Berman wrote, quoting a decision by another judge in New York who denied the government's move to unseal material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator who is serving a 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges.
Berman wrote that the grand jury material is "merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct." He cited "possible threats to victims' safety and privacy" as one of the factors that weighed in favor of not releasing the documents.
CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
In July, the Justice Department asked the judges overseeing the Maxwell and Epstein cases to release the grand jury material that formed the basis for the federal charges against them, a move that came amid uproar over the department's review of the so-called "Epstein files" and decision not to release additional documents in the government's possession.
Trump sounds off on potential security guarantees for Ukraine
North Carolina working to secure shoreline ahead of Hurricane Erin
Texas Democrats seek ways to undo Republican redistricting effort
Comments