🔗 Share this article Judge Rules DOJ May Release Ghislaine Maxwell Court Documents A federal judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein. Court Order Clears the Path for Document Disclosure Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents. The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be released within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the Justice Department 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 permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request to unseal records from an earlier federal probe into Epstein from the 2000s. A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Banking documents Survivor interview notes Data from digital devices Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead 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 serving a 20-year prison sentence. The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery. Previous Disclosures Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s. That investigation concluded in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served over a year in a jail work-release program.