🔗 Share this article Judge Decides Justice Department Can Make Public Ghislaine Maxwell Case Documents A U.S. judge has determined that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ formally requested in November to make public grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents. The judge's decision, which follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day window. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by December 19. Growing Trend of Disclosure Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing 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 Financial records Survivor interview notes Electronic device data Material from prior probes in Florida Context of the Cases Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail 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 will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of explicit imagery. Previous Disclosures Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and FOIA requests. Much of the evidence the DOJ now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s. That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a jail work-release program.