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Quoted By:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-grand-jury-unsealed.html
A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to unseal the records of the grand jury investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor and other counts.
The ruling by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer cited a new law passed by Congress requiring the Justice Department to release all its files on Mr. Epstein by Dec. 19.
But the opinion makes it clear that grand jury transcripts will be only a small part of a huge trove of materials that the Justice Department has said it intends to release under the new law.
The department also asked Judge Engelmayer to modify a protective order issued at the beginning of Ms. Maxwell’s case that maintained strict confidentiality over materials turned over to defense lawyers, known as discovery. “A paramount goal of the protective order,” the judge wrote, was “to protect the privacy interests of Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims.”
In his 24-page opinion on Tuesday, Judge Engelmayer wrote that the new law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, “unambiguously” applied to the discovery materials in the case. Modifying the protective order, he added, was necessary to enable the Justice Department “to carry out its legal obligations under the act.”
Such discovery includes materials gathered from searches of physical spaces, like Mr. Epstein’s house and island, and the contents of computers and other electronic devices seized from those spaces.
A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to unseal the records of the grand jury investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor and other counts.
The ruling by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer cited a new law passed by Congress requiring the Justice Department to release all its files on Mr. Epstein by Dec. 19.
But the opinion makes it clear that grand jury transcripts will be only a small part of a huge trove of materials that the Justice Department has said it intends to release under the new law.
The department also asked Judge Engelmayer to modify a protective order issued at the beginning of Ms. Maxwell’s case that maintained strict confidentiality over materials turned over to defense lawyers, known as discovery. “A paramount goal of the protective order,” the judge wrote, was “to protect the privacy interests of Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims.”
In his 24-page opinion on Tuesday, Judge Engelmayer wrote that the new law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, “unambiguously” applied to the discovery materials in the case. Modifying the protective order, he added, was necessary to enable the Justice Department “to carry out its legal obligations under the act.”
Such discovery includes materials gathered from searches of physical spaces, like Mr. Epstein’s house and island, and the contents of computers and other electronic devices seized from those spaces.
