🔗 Share this article Federal Judge Rules Justice Department May Make Public Maxwell Case Documents A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department 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 Paves the Way for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and evidence from the cases of both Maxwell and Epstein. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents. The judge's decision, 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 pertaining to Epstein records in a searchable format by a specified date in December. Judicial Pattern of Unsealing Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the DOJ to release previously secret Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Greatly Expanded The DOJ has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it passed the Transparency Act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Search warrants Banking documents Survivor interview notes Electronic device data Material from prior probes in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of related charges in December 2021 and is currently serving a two-decade sentence. The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and will edit records to protect survivors' identities 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 various means, including lawsuits, official releases, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the DOJ now plans to release originates from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s. That federal probe ended in 2008 with a confidential deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.