Topline
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury materials in its prosecution against Jeffrey Epstein, thwarting the Trump administration’s primary strategy to try and quell the public uproar over it refusing to release the full Epstein files—though the grand jury materials were unlikely to have revealed much information even if they had been released.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein at a party at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 12, 2000.
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Key Facts
New York Judge Richard Berman denied the DOJ’s request to make a number of documents public from the grand jury that decided to indict Epstein in 2019, including transcripts from the grand jury and exhibits that the grand jury was shown.
The Trump administration asked the court to unseal the materials in response to the public backlash over the DOJ’s memo announcing it would not release any further files on Epstein to the public.
Grand jury materials can typically only be made public under a very narrow set of circumstances, and while the Trump administration had argued that the Epstein case merited an exception due to the public interest in the case, Berman disagreed.
The judge wrote that while there is “certainly and appropriately lots of discussion about the Epstein case,” that interest is “legally insufficient” to justify the materials being released, and other factors also warrant the records remaining under seal, such as protecting the privacy and safety of Epstein’s victims.
Berman suggested the DOJ should instead release its own files in the Epstein case rather than ask for the grand jury materials to be unsealed, noting it is “the logical party” to release files on Epstein and that the information in the grand jury materials “pales in comparison” to the information “in the hands of the Department of Justice.”
The ruling comes after two other courts previously rejected other requests by the DOJ to unseal grand jury materials in cases against Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
What’s In The Grand Jury Materials?
While it’s unclear what exactly the sealed grand jury materials include, it’s unlikely they feature any major revelations about Epstein’s case or the people he associated with. The only witnesses who testified to the grand jury were law enforcement officials, and jurors did not hear from any of Epstein’s victims directly. The government has also conceded in court filings that at least some of the exhibits may already have been made public during Maxwell’s trial, and much of the materials may have been redacted in order to protect the identities of victims and other third parties. The indictment against Epstein details how the financier allegedly abused numerous women and led a sex trafficking operation in which victims were persuaded to recruit other women, many of whom were underage, but while it notes that some Epstein employees and other “associates” were involved in the operation, it does not make any allegations regarding the financier’s powerful friends.
Will Any Epstein Files Be Released?
Wednesday’s ruling ensures that grand jury materials regarding Epstein will remain under wraps, and the DOJ has still shown no willingness to voluntarily release its files on Epstein to the public. The government is expected to start complying with a congressional subpoena asking for its documents on Epstein later this week, however, and the House Oversight Committee confirmed to Forbes it intends to make the documents it receives public. It’s unclear how long that could take, however. The DOJ is expected to only start providing documents to lawmakers on Friday but has not confirmed a timeline on how long it will take to send over all the materials, and the committee told Forbes it will review documents to ensure victims’ privacy before anything is released.
Key Background
Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in prison later that year, but interest in his case has resurged this summer in the wake of the DOJ’s memo refusing to disclose any further documents. Justice officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had long promised the documents would be released and helped build public interest in the case prior to entering the White House, with Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino repeatedly promoting conspiracy theories such as the existence of a so-called Epstein “client list.” Their sudden about-face by refusing to release the files sparked fury among Trump’s base, and the push to release grand jury materials is one of a few steps the Trump administration has taken in an effort to limit the backlash, along with conducting a private interview with Maxwell in July. President Donald Trump directed Bondi to ask for the grand jury materials to be released in July, as the president faced scrutiny over a Wall Street Journal report suggesting he sent a “bawdy” letter to Epstein for the financier’s 50th birthday. The president called for the grand jury materials to be released after long downplaying the case against Epstein—whom he was friends with in the 1990s and early 2000s—and decrying the conspiracies against him as a “hoax.”
Further Reading
ForbesJudge Rejects Trump Bid To Unseal Epstein Associate Maxwell’s Grand Jury RecordsBy Zachary FolkForbesTrump And Bondi Promised Epstein Grand Jury Docs—But It Doesn’t Mean Anything Will Be Released Today Or EverBy Alison DurkeeForbesDOJ Asks Court To Release Epstein Grand Jury Evidence—But Unclear How Much May Already Be PublicBy Alison Durkee