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A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of case files 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 Justice Department asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day window. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Growing Trend of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a comparable petition to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration.

Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody 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 sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, public disclosures, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.