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A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. 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 requires the Justice Department 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 previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope 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:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy 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 sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the DOJ now intends to disclose stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into 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 prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a work-release program.