A federal judge has authorized the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release previously sealed grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 child trafficking case.
The ruling marks yet another major development in a rapid series of unsealing orders triggered by Congress’s new Epstein transparency law.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, a Bill Clinton appointee, was forced to reverse his earlier decision to keep the records sealed.
The judge cited Congress’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
While pushing to keep the files hidden from the American people, Berman previously argued that the roughly 70 pages of grand jury material contain little new information.
However, the judge has now said the new statute compels their release.
The decision comes just 24 hours after U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer granted the DOJ’s motion to unseal separate grand jury transcripts and exhibits in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case.
Last week, Judge Rodney Smith similarly moved to allow the DOJ to release transcripts from a shelved federal grand jury investigation dating back to the 2000s.
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of sex-trafficking minors for Epstein and his powerful friends.
She is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence.
Her attorney told the Associated Press that Maxwell would take no position on the unsealing request.
However, the release could complicate her upcoming habeas petition.
Congress’s new law forces unprecedented disclosure
The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department “to publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The measure, passed in November, sets a hard deadline of December 19 for the public release of these documents.
Lawmakers argued that years of secrecy around Epstein’s activities, associates, and prior non-prosecution agreements demanded a sweeping transparency mandate.
The DOJ has begun working with survivors and their attorneys to ensure the upcoming release does not expose victims’ identities or distribute sexualized material, according to the AP.
With multiple federal judges now green-lighting releases in rapid succession, the Justice Department is poised to disclose a massive tranche of Epstein-related documents in the coming days.
The move, just days before Christmas, is likely to reignite public scrutiny of one of the most politically explosive criminal cases in modern American history.
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