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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files 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 searchable format by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the DOJ to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a similar request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

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

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the extensive probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued 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 discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

A significant number of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose originates from photos, videos, and reports collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.