Judge rejects Trump administration's bid to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts
Manhattan-based US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the government's assertion that the materials would reveal meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes was "demonstrably false".
Judge Engelmayer reviewed the transcripts of the witness testimony heard by the grand jury and other evidence the panel saw before delivering his decision.
"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," he wrote.
He added unsealing the documents would risk "unravelling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised", by eroding the confidence of people called to testify before future grand juries.
The verdict is in line with those of a Florida judge who declined to release grand jury documents from investigations related to the case in 2005 and 2007.
Another federal judge still is weighing up whether to release the transcripts from the grand jury testimony that led to Epstein's indictment.
The Justice Department had asked to release the records to quell a storm among supporters of President Donald Trump who believe there is a conspiracy to protect Epstein's clients and conceal videos of crimes being committed.
Prosecutors have said much of what was discussed behind the grand jury's closed doors ultimately became public at Maxwell's trial in 2021, in victims' civil lawsuits or in public statements from victims and witnesses.
The only grand jury witnesses were law enforcement officers.
However, the decision regarding the grand jury transcripts does not affect thousands of other pages that the US government possesses but has declined to release.
The Justice Department has said much of the material was court-sealed to protect victims, and little of it would have come out if Epstein had gone to trial.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex-trafficking charges in 2021.
Appealing her conviction, the former girlfriend of Epstein opposed unsealing the documents.
Maxwell's lawyers said she had not seen the transcripts, but believed they were full of questionable statements that her defence had no opportunity to challenge.
She was recently interviewed by senior officials from the Justice Department, and was subsequently moved from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
Her attorney said she testified truthfully.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on separate sex-trafficking charges.
He had pleaded not guilty.
Neither the Justice Department nor a lawyer for Maxwell immediately responded to requests for comment.
Reuters/AP
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One staffer, who worked remotely, was told by Muldoon to come to New York, even though it wasn't part of their contract, and was told to put their hotel on the company card. Initially, Muldoon's theft was subtle and involved vendors the company regularly worked with. However, the charges later became unrelated, such as payments to the LIV Method, a private training gym popular among influencers. According to internal records, Muldoon spent nearly $30,000 at Net-a-Porter in just one month, even though Food52 did not require dressing talent. After Studio52 shut during the pandemic as part of a restructure, Muldoon was moved to oversee talent management, but her spending didn't stop. A former employee said: 'She kind of goes off to the brand-partnerships team, but her credit card is still attached to all of our production. 'We were like, 'Why are our videos so expensive? We didn't have access to her personal credit-card statements – that was just her boss and the finance department.' The company used a software to track expenses which assigned specific job codes to each advertising campaign. As long as the team stayed within budget and expenses were correctly coded, the reports were approved. Muldoon allegedly coded her fraudulent expenses as related to the advertising campaigns she managed. Plus, brand partnerships was a major business, and the department continued to meet its margins and goals often enough despite her personal spending. By 2023, Muldoon seemingly sensed the jig was up, and her colleagues heard less and less of her. In March that year, she took medical leave for a month, telling work she was suffering from migraines and that doctors thought she might have multiple sclerosis. In her absence, colleagues had to process her expenses and noticed suspicious charges, including $2435 to sneaker reseller StockX. One staffer mentioned this transaction in a workplace Slack channel, to which Muldoon replied from medical leave, saying she had flagged it with someone from accounting. But this response raised alarm bells for her colleagues, who were shocked she was replying to work messages while supposedly on medical leave. Muldoon's new manager spotted other discrepancies and escalated the issue to finance. They soon realised they were hundreds of thousands out of pocket. Just before Muldoon was set to return from her leave, she told a colleague she had asked for more time off, but the company refused. When she returned, she was let go for misusing company funds. Three months later, she flew to Mexico with flights she had previously bought using the company card. In February 2024, she was hired at Substack, but worked there less than 90 days. The situation was then brought to the Manhattan district attorney's office, which started preparing its case. Court records show that, although Muldoon was caught, she managed to get away with much more. 'The $413,000 in unauthorised purchases is a very conservative estimate as to Ms Muldoon's theft,' the statement of facts reads. 'Her last purchase could've been her smartest – a one-way flight to some place far away,' said a former colleague. 'She should've fled the country when she had the chance.'
