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

Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December.

Judicial Pattern of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a comparable petition to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the early 2000s.

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

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Data from digital devices
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty 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 prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

Tens of thousands of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a work-release program.