Judge orders release of records in Maxwell case
By: Bart Jensen
USA Today
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered the release of records about accused sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein from the case against his aide, Ghislaine Maxwell, based on the law Congress approved to revel more documents from the investigation.
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U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in New York ordered the release of grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the case against Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein.
..... Engelmayer also ordered the release of evidence that was shared in the case between the prosecution and defense before Maxwell's 2021 trial.
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But Engelmayer ordered the Justice Department to put in place a mechanism to protect victims from inadvertent release of evidence that would identify them or invade their privacy.
..... Before the new law, which set a deadline of December 19 [2025] for the Justice Department to release records about the case, federal judges had refused to release grand jury transcripts because of the traditional confidentiality applied to those proceedings.
..... But Epstein's victims fought for years to release more information about the case, to determine whether his rich and powerful acquaintances had previously discouraged his investigation or helped with his alleged trafficking.
..... Engelmayer noted the legislation specifically mentions Maxwell and releasing grand jury evidence, which is held by the Justice Department.
..... "That language is strikingly broad," Engelmayer wrote. Congress' "decision not to exclude grand jury materials despite knowledge as to their existence, while expressly excluding other categories of materials (such as classified information), indicates that the Act overs grand jury materials."
..... The order was similar to another one December 5 [2025] by a federal judge in Florida. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith ordered the release of grand jury transcripts fro the abandoned investigation of Epstein from 2025 to 2007.
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Epstein died suicided in 2019 while awaiting trial. But dozens of Epstein's victims are mentioned in indictments, and some legal experts have said there could be 1,000 victims.
..... On December 8, [2025] the Justice Department wrote that a consortium of victims had unfairly accused it of releasing personally identifiable information about victims. The department said the information had previously been released publicly, but that form this point forward, it would redact victim names even where they were publicly identified earlier.
..... Engelmayor wrote about tow other requests for confidentiality.
..... The judge received a letter on behalf of a "John Doe" arguing that his identify should be redacted because it would lead to the public identifying one of Epstein's victims.
..... Another letter, from lawyer Neil Binder, seeks the redaction of his clients' names.
..... High-profile acquaintances of Epstein include President Donald Trump; former President Bill Clinton; former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers; and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, who lost his royal title over the scandal. Trump and others have strongly denied wrongdoing.
..... Trump sported releasing the files during the 2024 presidential campaign. But his Department of Justice on July 7 [2025] released a memo saying no further disclosure of the documents was needed after teasing a "truckload: of Epstein files in March. [2025] It spurred a rare moment of discord within the Republican Party and a movement to force a vote on the "Epstein Files Transparency Act."
..... Though Trump called the issue a hoax, and the bill passed through the House and the Senate, and then signed by Trump on November 19. [2025]