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A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Document Disclosure

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the Justice Department asked the court in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents.

The court's ruling, which follows the recent passage of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law mandates the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Growing Trend of Disclosure

Engelmayer is the second judge to allow the Justice Department to release once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a judge in Florida approved a similar request 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 remains pending.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The Justice Department has stated that Congress aimed for this disclosure when it enacted the transparency act. The most recent filing vastly expanded the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging probe.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Financial records
• Notes from victim interviews
• Electronic device data
• Material from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was discovered deceased in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death officially deemed a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and prevent the dissemination of explicit imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now intends to disclose stems from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That federal probe ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served 13 months in a work-release program.