Judge Orders DOJ To Unseal Ghislaine Maxwell Grand Jury Materials Under New Epstein Law

A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department's request to unseal a "voluminous" set of grand jury transcripts and related evidence from the New York sex-trafficking investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer approved the disclosure after the Justice Department renewed its application following Congress's passage and President Trump's signing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the department to release records tied to investigations of Epstein and related matters.

Engelmayer said the statute "unambiguously applies" not only to grand jury transcripts and trial evidence in the Maxwell case, but also to extensive discovery materials in the Justice Department's possession, including unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative files. The law sets a public-disclosure deadline of Dec. 19 for Epstein- and Maxwell-related records.

Maxwell's attorneys filed a brief saying she took no position on the Justice Department's motion. Maxwell was convicted of federal sex-trafficking charges in 2021 and is serving a federal sentence scheduled to run through 2037. Jeffrey Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

In November, DOJ asked judges in both Florida and New York to unseal materials tied to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations. A separate federal judge in Florida recently ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from federal probes into Epstein dating to 2005 and 2007.

Federal rules generally require grand-jury materials to remain secret, and initial DOJ requests in July to unseal materials were denied. After the Epstein Files Transparency Act was enacted, the department argued the new law overrides those secrecy protections.

Engelmayer's order emphasizes protecting victims: it requires the identities of Epstein's and Maxwell's victims to be redacted and criticizes DOJ for insufficiently consulting with victims and their families before seeking disclosure.

"The victims' concerns, regrettably, have a basis in fact," Engelmayer wrote, adding that DOJ, "although paying lip service to Maxwell's and Epstein's victims, has not treated them with the solicitude they deserve."

The judge said he has established a procedure to prevent inadvertent disclosures that could identify victims or invade their privacy. He ordered the U.S. attorney's office to personally certify that each item released has been reviewed and redacted as necessary to protect victims' identities.

This ruling follows broader efforts by lawmakers and prosecutors to increase transparency about past investigations into Epstein and his associates while balancing victims' privacy and safety concerns.