https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-grand-jury-unsealed.htmlA Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to unseal the records of the grand jury investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor and other counts.The ruling by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer cited a new law passed by Congress requiring the Justice Department to release all its files on Mr. Epstein by Dec. 19.But the opinion makes it clear that grand jury transcripts will be only a small part of a huge trove of materials that the Justice Department has said it intends to release under the new law.The department also asked Judge Engelmayer to modify a protective order issued at the beginning of Ms. Maxwell’s case that maintained strict confidentiality over materials turned over to defense lawyers, known as discovery. “A paramount goal of the protective order,” the judge wrote, was “to protect the privacy interests of Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims.”In his 24-page opinion on Tuesday, Judge Engelmayer wrote that the new law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, “unambiguously” applied to the discovery materials in the case. Modifying the protective order, he added, was necessary to enable the Justice Department “to carry out its legal obligations under the act.”Such discovery includes materials gathered from searches of physical spaces, like Mr. Epstein’s house and island, and the contents of computers and other electronic devices seized from those spaces.
The discovery materials also include arrest records and post-arrest statements; bank and other financial records; private airline logs and reports; and notes of interviews with victims. The materials covered by the order also relate to civil litigation, like the transcripts and recordings of depositions.The new law requires that the materials be released with redactions to protect victims’ names and other identifying information. The act also says that the government may withhold from release information that could jeopardize an active federal investigation or prosecution.The motion seeking the unsealing of the materials was made last month by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had asked the judge to expedite a ruling given the upcoming deadline set by the new law.Ms. Bondi had also asked a different judge to unseal such materials from the investigation of Mr. Epstein, who was indicted on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019 and detained pending trial; he was found hanged in his jail cell the following month, and his death was ruled a suicide.The judge in Mr. Epstein’s case, Richard M. Berman, has not yet ruled on that request.This past summer, Judge Engelmayer and Judge Berman each denied similar requests by Ms. Bondi for the Maxwell and Epstein materials, citing grand jury secrecy. Ms. Bondi renewed her request to both judges for the materials after the new law passed last month.The request, submitted by Ms. Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, was signed by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The motion argues that the new law demonstrates a congressional intent “to override some of the underlying bases for grand jury secrecy.”The motion notes, for example, that one purpose of the secrecy rule is to protect people who have not been charged “from the anxiety, embarrassment and public castigation that may result from disclosure.”
The new law mandates that materials may not be “withheld, delayed or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, political sensitivity, including to any governmental official, public figure or foreign dignitary,” the motion says.Ms. Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 after a monthlong trial of sex-trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking of a minor and other counts.A federal judge in the Southern District of Florida on Friday granted the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury materials from an investigation there of Mr. Epstein that began in 2005 into allegations he was abusing teenage girls.As part of a deal to avoid federal charges, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges that included soliciting minors for prostitution, a deal that has been harshly criticized as overly lenient.
>>1463739>the anxiety, embarrassment and public castigation that may result from disclosureAnd that's just the GOP.Trump is screwed.
>>1464398I take Epstein at his word that Donald "knew about the girls". Still, I doubt he'd let the justice department release any other damning evidence. Problem is for him, he's already acted as suspicious as one can. No matter what's released, he ain't gonna clear his name.
>>1464443Yeah everyone can see how this is going to play out. When it's finally released it's going to be so redacted there will be multiple whole pages blacked out, except for the parts about Bill Clinton. Then five minutes after it's released Trump will call it a nothingburger, and then 10 minutes after that all Republicans will simultaneously forget about it.
>>1464444>Quad quadsNiceI agree Republicans will bury their heads in the sand... but your average Joe ain't gonna forget. As soon as someone gets laid off it'll be real tempting to remember the man in charge of the country was friends with him.At least that's my intuition. Google search trends show Epstein interest as low, along with some serious spikes recently. Each of the spikes corresponds to an increase in traffic for Trump's name, with a 93:7 ratio of trump to Epstein interest. That's definitely not good for Donald, but the evidence does push back against my confidence in the first paragraph. The Google trends are less biased than I, so I'd believe them rather than me.
>>1464451I think there is a secondary story in the background about how the DOJ supposedly spent over a million dollars on redacting. They must have a team of 1000 secretaries hard at work in MSword, or else it's some kind of scam and someone is lining their pockets.
>>1464443trump's DoJ would rather destroy the list and get a pardon from him than let it go public if there's a smoking gun he raped kids in it.
>>1458883>As written, the bill requires that no records be withheld, redacted, or delayed due to embarrassment or potential harm to someone’s reputationDistract all you want, Trump. You won't be allowed to forget.
