🔗 Share this article Federal Judge Rules DOJ Can Make Public Maxwell Case Materials 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. Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of a vast number of previously unreleased documents. The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December. Judicial Pattern of Unsealing Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the DOJ to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge granted a similar request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case is still under consideration. Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress intended this disclosure when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Banking documents Notes from victim interviews Electronic device data Evidence from prior probes in Florida Context of the Cases Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence. The government has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and plans to redact records to safeguard victim anonymity and stop the sharing of explicit imagery. Prior Releases Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the material the Justice Department now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s. That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.