🔗 Share this article Judge Decides Justice Department Can Release Ghislaine Maxwell Court Documents A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice can proceed with the public release of case files from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Document Disclosure Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ asked the court in November to unseal grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the publication of a vast number of hitherto sealed documents. The judge's decision, which comes in the wake of the recent enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these materials could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by December 19. Growing Trend of Disclosure Engelmayer is the latest jurist to permit the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a Florida judge approved a similar request to unseal records from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending. Breadth of Disclosure Significantly Enlarged The DOJ has stated that Congress intended this unsealing when it passed the transparency act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the scope of files slated for release to include 18 categories of evidence gathered during the extensive probe. These documents are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Banking documents Notes from victim interviews Data from digital devices Evidence from prior probes in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. He was discovered deceased in a prison cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of related charges in December 2021 and is serving a two-decade sentence. The federal authorities has indicated it is conferring with survivors and their lawyers and will edit records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of explicit imagery. Prior Releases A significant number of pages of records related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through various means, including civil cases, public disclosures, and Freedom of Information Act requests. Much of the evidence the DOJ now intends to disclose stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Palm Beach, Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s. That federal probe concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal charges by pleading guilty to a state prostitution charge. He completed over a year in a jail work-release program.