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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day period. The legislation requires the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

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

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody 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 found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release originates from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That investigation concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.