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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the public release 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 asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials 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 December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation 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 Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed 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 victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

A significant number 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 evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.