đź”— Share this article Federal Judge Rules Justice Department Can Release Ghislaine Maxwell Case Documents A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Document Disclosure Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents. The judge's decision, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide Epstein-related 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 records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge granted a comparable petition to release transcripts 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 intended this unsealing when it enacted the transparency act. The latest request vastly expanded the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the extensive probe. These documents are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Banking documents Survivor interview notes Electronic device data Material from prior probes in Florida Context of the Cases Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was taken into custody 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 convicted of related 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. Prior Releases A significant number of pages of documents pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including lawsuits, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act 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 federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the 2000s. That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a work-release program.