Judge Grants Justice Department’s Motion to Release Grand Jury Materials in Ghislaine Maxwell Case

A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to release grand jury materials and other non-public evidence from the criminal case of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to comply with a congressional directive to publicly release materials from government files on the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide. in a New York jail in 2019.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer determined in his 24-page order that the Epstein Transparency Act, passed last month, “unequivocally applies” to discovery materials provided by prosecutors to Maxwell’s defense team in connection with his criminal trial.

The ruling grants the Trump administration’s request to modify the protective order in the case to allow the Justice Department to release materials subject to certain exemptions outlined by Congress.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being sentenced in 2021 on five counts of assisting Epstein in his abuse of underage girls. A substantial subset of the government’s evidence against Maxwell was made public during his three-week trial in federal court in New York.

The Epstein Transparency Act was passed by Congress last month and signed by President Donald Trump after setback received by the administration of MAGA supporters seeking the release of the materials. The law requires the Justice Department to make public all Epstein-related materials in its possession within 30 days of passing the bill.

The law allows the Department of Justice to retain or redact records to protect the privacy of alleged victims. It also allows the attorney general to withhold records that could jeopardize an ongoing federal investigation or prosecution.

Judge Engelmayer’s order establishes a protocol to protect victims from the inadvertent disclosure of materials “that would identify them or invade their privacy.”

“Nothing in this Protective Order will prohibit the Government from publishing materials whose disclosure is required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Engelmayer wrote. “The restrictions of this Protective Order, however, remain in effect with respect to segregable portions of records that ‘contain personally identifiable information of victims or victims’ personal and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.'”

Emphasizing concerns about the privacy of the alleged victims, Engelmayer also added a provision to the protective order that will require the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to “personally certify in an affidavit” that such records have been rigorously reviewed for compliance, according to the order.

Engelmayer noted in his order that the alleged victims’ concerns about the inadvertent disclosure of their names and other identifying information “have a basis in fact.” He noted that in its two requests to the court to release records, the Justice Department acted without prior notice to victims.

The Justice Department, Engelmayer wrote, has paid “lip service” to victims but “has not treated them with the care they deserve.”

“The certification requirement that the Court is adding to the Protective Order ensures that an identifiable official within the Department of Justice takes ownership of the sensitive and vitally important process of reviewing discovery so that it becomes public. It will help ensure that victims’ legal privacy rights are protected,” the judge wrote.

Following the ruling, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garica, called on the Justice Department to immediately provide those records to the committee, which already has a bipartisan subpoena to the Justice Department for all of its Epstein/Maxwell investigation files.

“These files are now part of the Epstein files held by the Department of Justice, and must be released to the Oversight Committee in response to our subpoena, and to the public under the Epstein Records Transparency Act. The Department of Justice must comply immediately,” Garica said in a statement.

“In addition to this new ruling, a federal judge in Florida also granted the Department of Justice’s request to unseal Epstein-related grand jury records from the mid-2000s, and the Committee looks forward to receiving those materials as well,” the statement said.

The DOJ previously indicated to the court that the discovery materials it seeks to make public could include, among other things, search warrant requests, financial and travel records, photographs and videos of relevant properties, immigration records, forensic reports of electronic device removals, materials produced by Epstein’s estate, and reports and notes from interviews of victims and third parties.

Maxwell’s attorneys told the court last week that she did not take a formal position on the Justice Department’s motion, but argued that the disclosure of non-public materials would affect her ability to obtain a fair new trial if she were successful in her upcoming habeas petition, a risky gamble for a new trial.

“Ms. Maxwell respectfully notes that she will soon file a pro se habeas petition. Disclosure of the grand jury materials in her case, which contain unproven and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would preclude the possibility of a fair new trial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition be successful,” her attorneys wrote.

Regarding the grand jury materials, Engelmayer ruled that the Epstein Records Transparency Act overrides the federal rule of criminal procedure governing grand jury secrecy. It also determined that the law does not exempt grand jury materials from disclosure.

Engelmayer is the second judge to grant a Justice Department motion to unseal grand jury testimony and other previously restricted Epstein materials, after U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith last week granted the administration’s request to lift restrictions on grand jury material related to Epstein’s first federal investigation in Florida in the mid-2000s, which ended his widely criticized non-prosecution agreement.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman is currently considering a similar request from the Justice Department to allow the government to release materials associated with the 2019 criminal case against Epstein in federal court in Manhattan. That case ended with Epstein’s death in August 2019.