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A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Clears the Path for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

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

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of records related 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 Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.