NEW YORK (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, wants to keep grand jury records secret in the sex trafficking case that sent her to prison, her lawyers said Tuesday as prosecutors continued urging a court to release some of those records in the criminal case-turned-political fireball.
Maxwell hasn’t seen the material herself, her attorneys said — the grand jury process is conducted behind closed doors. But she opposes unsealing what her lawyers described as potentially “hearsay-laden” transcripts of grand jury testimony, which was given in secret and without her lawyers there to challenge it.
“Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain,” attorneys David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal wrote.
Prosecutors declined to comment.
Government attorneys have been trying to quell a clamor for transparency by seeking the transcripts’ release — though the government also says the public already knows much of what’s in the documents.
