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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release 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 Justice Department formally requested in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

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 18 categories of evidence gathered during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Context of the Cases

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

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

Much of the material the DOJ now intends to disclose originates 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 mid-2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a work-release program.