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A U.S. judge has determined that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day window. The legislation requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

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

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

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

That investigation concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.