🔗 Share this article Judge Decides Justice Department Can Make Public Ghislaine Maxwell Case Materials A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the public release of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Document Disclosure Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to make public grand jury transcripts 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 period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19. Growing Trend of Disclosure Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request 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 Significantly Enlarged The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Financial records Survivor interview notes Electronic device data Evidence from prior probes in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled 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 consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery. Prior Releases A significant number of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests. Much of the material the Justice Department now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports 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 investigation ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a jail work-release program.