đź”— Share this article Judge Rules Justice Department May Make Public Ghislaine Maxwell Court Materials A U.S. 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. Judicial Ruling Clears the Path for Document Disclosure Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to unseal grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents. The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19. Judicial Pattern of Disclosure Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration. Scope of Release Greatly Expanded The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Financial records Survivor interview notes Data from digital devices Evidence from prior probes in Florida Context of the Cases Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested 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 convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence. The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of explicit imagery. Prior Releases Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including civil cases, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s. That investigation concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served 13 months in a work-release program.