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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Justice Department can proceed with the disclosure of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Clears the Path for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court 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 hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public 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 Disclosure

Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret 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 early 2000s.

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

Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged

The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this unsealing when it enacted the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging probe.

These documents are reported to include items such as:

• Court-issued warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Data from digital devices
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and will edit records to safeguard victim anonymity 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 FOIA requests.

Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s.

That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.