The U.S. Justice Department is pushing New York judges to unseal key documents connected to the grand jury inquiries involving Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. This move follows the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates the release of these records within a 30-day timeframe. The legislation, signed into law by former President Donald Trump, received overwhelming support in Congress.
Jeffrey Epstein, who faced charges of sex trafficking minors, was arrested in July 2019 in Manhattan. Tragically, he was found dead in his jail cell just a month later, before he could stand trial. Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2021 for her role in the conspiracy, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously encountered resistance from New York courts, which denied her requests to access these documents, citing the need to uphold grand jury secrecy. However, with the new legislation in place, Bondi contends that these legal barriers should no longer stand.
In a letter to Judge Richard Berman, who was involved in the Epstein case, and Paul Engelmayer, who oversees Maxwell’s proceedings, Bondi emphasized the power of the new law. “The Act manifests a congressional intent to override some of the underlying bases for grand jury secrecy,” she stated, underscoring the legislative intent to prioritize transparency in these high-profile cases.
But now the attorney general argues the new bill signed by Trump and backed to the hilt by congress, supersedes any existing legal hurdles.
‘The Act manifests a congressional intent to override some of the underlying bases for grand jury secrecy,’ Bondi wrote to Judge Richard Berman, who oversaw the Epstein case, and Paul Engelmayer, who presides over Maxwell’s case.
The motion noted that the law allows redactions of anything that ‘would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution’, however the filings did not mention the recently launched investigations into Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman ordered by Trump.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the main architects of the Epstein bill, had claimed that Trump’s sudden order for the new probes of Clinton and others was a ‘smokescreen’ to prevent the full release of the files.
Donald Trump, Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000
Trump repeatedly called the Epstein files a Democrat ‘hoax’ in recent months despite campaigning on a pledge to release the documents once in office.
The president explosively fell out with Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over her ferocious criticism of the administration.
Epstein, a New York financier who owned a home in Palm Beach, was a longtime friend of Trump throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s.
The president expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago Club around October 2006 over accusations of ‘creepy’ behavior to young female staff members.
Judge Berman denied in August a request by the Trump administration to release the grand jury files.
The judge said that ‘a significant and compelling reason’ for denying the release was because the 100,000 pages of Epstein dossiers in the government’s possession ‘dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials.’
Berman said that the grand jury files ‘pale in comparison’ to the investigative materials held by the Justice Department, and are ‘merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.’
He rebuked the government for asking the court to become embroiled in the public furor.
‘The Government’s complete information trove would better inform the public about the Epstein case,’ Berman wrote.
Two other judges have also denied the public release of material from investigations into Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of young women and girls.
The Justice Department has said that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, ‘had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.’
The agent testified on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log. The July 2 session ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein.
Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019. He was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail on August 10, 2019 in what authorities have ruled a suicide.
