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A U.S. judge has determined that the Justice Department 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 issued the ruling after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be released within a 10-day window. The new law mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related records in a digitally searchable form by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted 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 sex-trafficking case is still under consideration.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for 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 investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled 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 consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery.

Previous Disclosures

A significant number of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered 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 charges by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served over a year in a work-release program.