🔗 Share this article Judge Decides DOJ May Release Maxwell Court Documents A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of case files 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 issued the ruling after the Justice Department asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents. The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December. Judicial Pattern of Disclosure Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the Justice Department to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged The Justice Department has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe. These materials are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Financial records 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 sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty 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 protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery. Previous Disclosures 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 DOJ now intends to disclose stems from photos, videos, and reports gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which looked into Epstein in the 2000s. That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served 13 months in a work-release program.