🔗 Share this article Federal Judge Rules DOJ Can Make Public Ghislaine Maxwell Court Materials A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Clears the Path for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents. The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day window. The new law mandates the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December. Judicial Pattern of Disclosure Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration. Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation. These documents are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Banking documents Notes from victim interviews Data from digital devices Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking 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 20-year prison sentence. The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery. Previous Disclosures Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests. Much of the material the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s. That investigation concluded in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.