Judge rules Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records can be unsealed
A federal judge in New York has ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice can publicly release grand jury materials related to the sex trafficking investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer said he ordered the release of the documents because of a law recently passed by Congress that requires the Justice Department to release files on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by the end of next week.
In its ruling, it said the court would create mechanisms to protect victims from the publication of material that would “identify them or otherwise invade their privacy.”
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in luring underage girls for her ex-boyfriend, Epstein, to exploit. Epstein died in prison in 2019.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of facilitating Epstein’s abuse. Between 1994 and 2004, he recruited and groomed girls, some as young as 14, before they were abused by Epstein, prosecutors said.
The order to release grand jury materials follows a similar ruling by a judge in Florida on Friday; That decision allowed the release of documents related to the state’s investigation into Epstein, which began in 2005.
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November after previously rejecting calls to release the files.
The court decision stated that the law “applies to non-classified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” related to Epstein and Maxwell.
The justice department has until Dec. 19 to make public all information from federal investigations into Epstein, but the law also allows the department to withhold files that involve active criminal investigations or raise privacy concerns.
Judges in Florida and New York had previously refused to unseal grand jury materials related to Epstein, citing federal rules that require grand jury proceedings to be kept secret.
But after Congress passed the bill to release the Epstein material, the justice department made the same request, arguing that the law’s “clear mandate” should “override” those privacy rules.
