🔗 Share this article Federal Judge Rules DOJ Can Make Public Maxwell Case Documents A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the public release of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents. The judge's decision, 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 December 19. Growing Trend of Unsealing Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to release once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration. Scope of Release Greatly Expanded The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the wide-ranging probe. These documents are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Financial records Survivor interview notes Electronic device data Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking 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 sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence. The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery. Prior Releases Tens of thousands of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s. That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state charge. He completed 13 months in a jail work-release program.