🔗 Share this article Federal Judge Rules Justice Department May Release Ghislaine Maxwell Case Documents A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents. The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19. Judicial Pattern of Unsealing Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret 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 remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe. These materials are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Banking documents Notes from victim interviews Electronic device data Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased 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 two-decade sentence. The government has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery. Prior Releases A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, 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 prostitution charge. He served over a year in a jail work-release program.