A federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s motion to unseal grand jury materials related to the sex trafficking cases against dead trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime lover and convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a 31-page opinion and order on the motion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer shot down the motion, finding the documents do not contain “significant, undisclosed information about [their] crimes, or the investigation into them.”
He wrote that only two “features” of the grand jury evidence were noteworthy, summarizing them in his decision:
“First, the grand juries in this case were not used for investigative purposes,” he wrote. “They did not hear testimony from any firsthand witness to any event at issue. They did not hear testimony from any victim, eyewitness, suspect, or even a records custodian. The grand juries met instead for the quotidian purpose of returning an indictment.”
EPSTEIN, MAXWELL GRAND JURIES RELIED ON TWO LAW ENFORCEMENT WITNESSES, DOJ FILING REVEALS
The only witnesses were members of law enforcement, and each grand jury heard evidence only for one day, he wrote.
“Second, the evidence put before the Maxwell grand juries is today, with only very minor exceptions, a matter of public record,” Engelmayer continued. “The Government admitted as much.”
In addition to transcripts of grand jury testimony, the Justice Department also wanted to unseal additional evidence presented as exhibits to the grand jurors. They were expected to include more names than have been publicly associated with the latter in criminal and civil court proceedings.
But Engelmayer denied the government’s request for the exhibits, too.
FEDERAL JUDGE RULES ON TRUMP’S REQUEST TO UNSEAL EPSTEIN GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS
Read the judge’s decision:
“A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the Government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,” he wrote. “The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes.”
They also do not shed any new light on the origin of Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of his death, or “the path of the Government’s investigation,” he added.
The grand jury exhibits cannot be released without a court’s permission, but federal prosecutors asked to have them unsealed due to intense public interest across the country. Details about what relationship, if any, the named individuals may have had with Epstein or Maxwell were not immediately clear.
Prosecutors asked the court to give them until Thursday, Aug. 14, to notify anyone whose name would be unveiled.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted at trial in 2021 of helping her former lover, Epstein, traffic teen girls.
She is appealing her conviction and has indicated in recent weeks that she is willing to sit for interviews with Congress and the Justice Department.
Epstein died in a federal jail cell in 2019 before he faced trial himself. His official cause of death has been ruled a suicide, a conclusion rejected by his brother.
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