A federal judge in New York on Monday rejected a request by the Justice Department to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the criminal investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted procurer for notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Judge Paul Engelmayer, in his ruling, scoffed at the Justice Department’s rationale for unsealing the Maxwell grand jury transcripts.
“Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer wrote in his decision in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
The Justice Department sought the unsealing of grand jury material related to Maxwell and Epstein after harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s decision to not publicly release the investigative file on Epstein.
A federal judge in Florida on July 23 denied the department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts about a probe of Epstein in that state by federal prosecutors in the mid-2000s.
