Judge denies request to unseal grand jury records from Maxwell indictment in Epstein case

Globe and Mail

6 days ago

A U.S. judge denied on Monday the Justice Department's bid to unseal records from the grand jury that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein's partner Ghislaine Maxwell on sex-trafficking charges, writing that the records did not answer lingering questions from the public about their crimes or Epstein's death.
Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who reviewed the transcripts of the witness testimony heard by the grand jury and other evidence the panel saw, wrote that the government's assertion that the materials would reveal meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes was 'demonstrably false.'
'A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the Government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,' Engelmayer wrote.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
Neither the Justice Department nor a lawyer for Maxwell immediately responded to requests for comment.
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Epstein socialized with the wealthy and powerful, and his death in jail sparked conspiracy theories that other prominent people were involved in his alleged crimes and that he was murdered. The New York City chief medical examiner determined that Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, had promised to make public Epstein-related files if re-elected and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But in July, the Justice Department said a previously touted Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump's supporters.
Seeking to quell the discontent from his base of conservative supporters and congressional Democrats, Trump instructed Attorney-General Pam Bondi last month to seek the release of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury material, as he sought to quell discontent over his administration's handling of documents from the cases.
But Engelmayer wrote that the Maxwell grand jury proceedings, which consisted of testimony from two law enforcement agents, did not contain noteworthy information that had not previously been made public at Maxwell's month-long trial four years ago.
'The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein's or Maxwell's,' the judge wrote. 'They do not reveal new sources of their wealth. They do not explore the circumstances of Epstein's death.'
Engelmayer acknowledged that the extent to which the material had already been made public weighed in favour of unsealing the records. But he said that was not enough to outweigh the 'systemic interest' in maintaining the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
Grand juries operate largely out of the public eye to prevent interference in criminal investigations and to protect the reputations of individuals who are not charged with crimes.