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A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate 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 make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials 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 federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the material the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.