A United States judge has denied a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to unseal transcripts from a grand jury that indicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a decision issued on Monday, Judge Paul A Engelmayer said lawyers for the government failed to convince the court that extraordinary circumstances warranted the release of the grand jury testimony, which is typically delivered privately and sealed.
“[The government’s] entire premise – that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them – is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer wrote in his decision.
The DOJ in June announced it would not release any additional documents from the investigation into Epstein, causing an uproar among President Donald Trump’s base, which holds a number of conspiracy theories about the well-connected sex trafficker.
In an effort to quell the backlash, the DOJ at the order of Trump then sought to unseal transcripts both from Maxwell’s grand jury as well as Epstein’s. The decision regarding the request for Epstein’s case has yet to released.
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.
After reviewing the materials the government sought to release publicly, the judge wrote that anyone familiar with the Maxwell trial record who looked at them would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”
“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said.
He said the materials also don’t reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of Epstein’s death or the path of the government investigation.
The best argument to release the transcripts might be that “doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote, saying that the government’s request appeared to be a “diversion”.
Florida lawyer Brad Edwards, who has represented nearly two dozen Epstein accusers, said he didn’t disagree with the ruling and most wanted to protect victims. “The grand jury materials contain very little in the way of evidentiary value anyway,” he said.
Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim declined comment; her lawyers had sought to keep the testimony sealed citing the confidentiality of the proceedings. The Justice Department has yet to publicly respond.
