US District Judge ruled that unsealing Ghislaine Maxwell’s grand jury records would not provide new insights into Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes or death.
A US federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to unseal grand jury records from Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case. The court said the transcripts contain nothing new about the crimes of Maxwell and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, or Epstein’s controversial death in jail.
The decision undermines US President Donald Trump’s promise to release Jeffrey Epstein-related files and leaves many questions unanswered.
On Monday, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan denied the Justice Department’s bid. He had reviewed the grand jury witness testimony and other evidence. He wrote that the government’s claim of revealing meaningful new information was “demonstrably false.”
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Engelmayer said that a public reader familiar with Maxwell’s trial would “learn next to nothing new” from the records. The transcripts contained testimony from only two law enforcement agents. According to him, they did not name any new individuals who had sexual contact with minors. They also did not reveal new details about Epstein’s clients, sources of wealth, or the circumstances of his death.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. The official ruling called it suicide by hanging, but the incident fueled conspiracy theories. Epstein had ties to wealthy and powerful figures, which has kept the public interest alive.
Trump had pledged to make Epstein-related files public if re-elected. He accused Democrats of hiding the truth. In July, the Justice Department said the long-rumoured Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump’s supporters.
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To address dissatisfaction among conservatives and some Democrats, Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of Maxwell’s grand jury records. But the judge’s ruling now blocks that effort.
Engelmayer acknowledged that some material from the grand jury had already entered the public domain. However, he said this did not outweigh the systemic interest in maintaining secrecy. Grand juries operate behind closed doors to prevent interference in investigations and to protect people who are not charged.
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