NEW YORK (AP) — Transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony that led to the sex trafficking indictment of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell won’t be released, a judge ruled Monday, saying the government's suggestion that they'd reveal new information about the crimes was “demonstrably false.”
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written decision that the government had proposed releasing grand jury materials “casually or promiscuously,” jeopardizing the tradition of grand jury secrecy that protects the confidence of those called to testify before future grand juries.
He said the Justice Department's suggestion that the grand jury materials “would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false.”
After reviewing the materials the government sought to release publicly, the judge wrote that anyone familiar with the Maxwell trial record who looked at them would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”
“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said.
He said the materials also don't reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein's wealth, the circumstances of Epstein's death or the path of the government investigation.
The judge noted the Justice Department had requested public disclosure of the entire proceedings before the Maxwell grand jury, minus redactions to protect privacy.
Florida lawyer Brad Edwards, who has represented nearly two dozen Epstein accusers, said he didn’t disagree with the ruling and was mostly concerned with protecting victims. “The grand jury materials contain very little in the way of evidentiary value anyway,” he said.
Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim declined to comment. Messages for comment were left with the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors had asked to unseal the documents to calm a whirlpool of suspicions about what the government knows about Epstein, a well-connected financier who died behind bars while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell, a socialite, was later convicted of helping him prey on underage girls.
The Justice Department has acknowledged the only witnesses who testified were an FBI agent and a New York Police Department detective when the grand jury met in 2020 and 2021.
Prosecutors have said much of what was discussed behind the grand jury’s closed doors ultimately became public at Maxwell’s 2021 trial, in victims’ civil lawsuits or in public statements from victims and witnesses.
The decision about the grand jury transcripts, which ran less than 200 pages, doesn’t affect thousands of other pages the government possesses but has declined to release. The Justice Department has said much of the material was court-sealed to protect victims and little of it would've come out if Epstein had gone to trial.
Another federal judge is weighing whether to release the transcripts from the grand jury testimony that led to Epstein’s indictment.
A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007.
Some Epstein victims supported releasing the grand jury transcripts with some redactions. Other accusers said the debate over the material caused them anguish.
Maxwell, who’s appealing her conviction, opposed unsealing the documents. Her lawyers said she hasn’t seen them but believed they were full of questionable statements she had no opportunity to challenge.
Maxwell recently was interviewed by the Justice Department and was moved from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Her attorney says she testified truthfully.
The Epstein saga has again become a national flashpoint six years after authorities said he killed himself. The 66-year-old was facing federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of women and girls as young as 14.
Epstein already had served jail time and registered as a sex offender after pleading guilty to Florida prostitution offenses in a 2008 deal that let him avoid federal charges then.
President Donald Trump raised questions about Epstein’s death, and Trump allies stoked conspiracy theories that dark secrets were covered up to protect powerful people. Some of those allies got powerful positions in Trump’s Justice Department and promised to pull back the curtain on the Epstein investigation — but then announced this summer nothing more would be released and a long-rumored Epstein “client list” doesn’t exist.
The about-face amplified the clamor for transparency. After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for not moving on, Trump told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts.
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