US judge allows Epstein grand jury files be made public

A U.S. judge in Manhattan has allowed records from a grand jury’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein to be made public because of a law recently passed by Congress, the latest in a series of similar decisions.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman’s decision, at the request of the Justice Department, came a day after another judge made a similar request in the case of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison for sex trafficking of underage girls.

The verdicts could lead to the disclosure of grand jury testimony and investigative files that would shed more light on Epstein’s ties to rich and powerful people, including President Donald Trump.

In August, Berman rejected a previous Justice Department request to unseal grand jury materials normally permanently sealed by law, citing “potential threats to the safety and privacy of victims.”

But in Wednesday’s ruling, the judge said the disclosure was now necessary because of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Trump signed into law last month.

Berman said he would seek to secure “Epstein victims’ unquestionable rights to have their identities and privacy protected.”

Berman oversaw the sex trafficking case filed against Epstein by federal prosecutors in 2019, which resulted in his death.

A federal judge in Florida on Friday granted a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury transcripts from an earlier federal investigation into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

Many Trump voters believe his administration covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and concealed details about his death in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he faces federal sex trafficking charges.

Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide.

Trump, who said he ended his friendship with Epstein long before the financier’s arrest in 2019, had opposed releasing the files but reversed course shortly before lawmakers voted on legislation that would require it.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her 2021 conviction on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Department of Justice to make records related to Epstein publicly available in a searchable format by December ‍19.