Judge denies DOJ request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts

Business Standard

13 hours ago

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case, joining two other judges who declined to release similar records from investigations into the late financier's sexual abuse of young women and girls.
Judge Richard Berman, who presided over the 2019 case, ruled a week after another Manhattan federal judge turned down the government's request to release transcripts from the grand jury that indicted Epstein's longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Barring reversal on appeal, Berman's decision appears to foreclose the possibility of federal courts releasing Epstein-related grand jury testimony.
A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007, though some material from a state case against Epstein was made public last year.
The rulings were a resounding repudiation of the Justice Department's effort to unlock the records, a move the Republican administration undertook amid a fierce backlash over its refusal to release a massive trove of documents in its possession.
Berman and the judge in Maxwell's case, Paul A Engelmayer, made clear in their rulings that the grand jury transcripts contain none of the answers likely to satisfy the immense public interest in the case, with Berman calling the request a diversion.
President Donald Trump had called for the release of transcripts amid rumours and criticism about his long-ago involvement with Epstein. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files related to Epstein, but he was met with criticism including from many of his own supporters when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked new revelations.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.
Each of the judges who declined to release transcripts cited longstanding grand jury secrecy rules and concluded that the government did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could justify making them public.
They also noted that the Justice Department has voluminous records related to Epstein that aren't covered by grand jury secrecy rules.
Berman wrote that the scant information contained in around 70 pages of Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice," which he said totals around 100,000 pages.
The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files, Berman wrote in an apparent reference to the Justice Department's refusal to release additional records.
He said the request to release grand jury records "appears to be a diversion' from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government's possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct.
The Justice Department had informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury in 2019 was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, "had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.
The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log.
Last year, a judge in Florida unsealed around 150 pages of transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to Epstein's indictment on state charges there in 2006.
Maxwell, a British socialite and publishing heir, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Epstein died in jail awaiting trial.
Maxwell's case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department said last month that it would not release any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.
Since then, officials in Trump's Republican administration have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.
Meanwhile, Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse weeks ago by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The House Oversight Committee also said it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said they would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to ensure immunity from prosecution.
In a letter to Maxwell's lawyers, Rep James Comer, the committee chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition until after the resolution of Maxwell's appeal to the Supreme Court. That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September.
Comer wrote that while Maxwell's testimony was vital to the Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony.
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