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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials 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 made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request 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 criminal case remains pending.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging 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

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including civil cases, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.