WASHINGTON, D.C. — A second federal judge in New York on Wednesday granted a U.S. Department of Justice request to unseal grand jury records in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges and whose case files have become a target of Congress and victims in recent months.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman issued the order to unseal the secret grand jury material in the government’s 2019 sex trafficking case against the hedge fund manager and friend to celebrities and politicians.
Berman ruled one day after a separate federal judge in New York granted the government’s request to unseal grand jury material in the 2021 federal case against convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked closely with Epstein to target minors for sex.
Berman wrote the Justice Department’s request aligned with a new law, dubbed by lawmakers as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the case files in the Epstein investigation by Dec. 19. Congress overwhelmingly passed the measure and President Donald Trump signed it in mid-November.
“The Act requires disclosure of Epstein grand jury materials by requiring the disclosure of ‘all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials.’” Berman wrote. “‘All’ is crystal clear and should be afforded its ‘ordinary, common-sense meaning.”
All identifying information of victims must be redacted, Berman emphasized.
The order also came days after a Florida federal judge’s decision to release secret grand jury materials from the federal investigation of Epstein from 2005 to 2007. Federal investigators cut a deal with state prosecutors to end the probe after Epstein pleaded guilty to a state charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Political pressure
The FBI issued a memo in July stating the administration would not publicly release any further records from the federal Epstein probe. The refusal caused a firestorm among lawmakers from both parties, including some in Trump’s voter base.
For months afterward, Trump dismissed pressure to release the Epstein files, calling it a “hoax.” Less than two days before Congress was set to vote on the legislation the president changed his opinion and told his party to support it.
A bipartisan group of senators and House members pressed Bondi in a letter on Dec. 3 to brief them on what the Justice Department plans to release later this month.
The law has carve-outs allowing the department to withhold information relating to any active investigations.
On Nov. 14, the department announced the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan would begin “new investigations” into any connections between Epstein and former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and prominent investor Reid Hoffman.
Bondi said Nov. 19 during a press conference that “information has come forward, new information, additional information.”
A separate bipartisan panel on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed the Justice Department for all Epstein investigation records, and subpoenaed the Clintons and several former attorneys general for interviews.
The Justice Department maintains Epstein targeted over 1,000 victims.
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