The US Justice Department sought the unsealing of grand jury material related to Maxwell and Epstein after harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s decision to not publicly release the investigative file on Epstein
Transcripts of secret grand jury testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case won’t be released, a US judge has ruled.
Justice Paul Engelmayer said in a written ruling that the government had suggested the materials could be released publicly “casually or promiscuously”. However, he said such a move would risk “unravelling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised” and eroding confidence by persons called to testify before future grand juries.
He added: “And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous. The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or others, given in support of charges that later proceeded to trial.”
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Federal prosecutors had asked to unseal the documents, in an effort to calm a whirlpool of suspicions about what the government knows about Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell, his socialite ex-girlfriend, was convicted of helping him prey on underage girls.
It’s unclear how much the transcripts would have revealed since the Justice Department has acknowledged they contained no testimony from witnesses who were not members of law enforcement.
In his 31-page opinion, Judge Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York criticised the Department of Justice for using “demonstrably false” reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony.
The transcripts would “not reveal new information of any consequence” about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, according to Judge Engelmayer, who suggested the Trump administration’s push to release documents might be an intentional “diversion.”
“Its entire premise, that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them, is demonstrably false,” he wrote.
Engelmayer noted the political interest in his decision but stressed that it didn’t affect it.
Fury erupted in the US after Donald Trump reneged on a campaign promise to release all government files held on Epstein.
Many have pointed to how the pledge was broken after Elon Musk said the president’s name appeared in the documents. The scandal surrounding Epstein, six years after his jail cell suicide, has gained new impetus since Trump returned to the White House in January.
While campaigning for the presidency, the US leader vowed to release all government documents related to Epstein. However, just weeks after Elon Musk claimed in June that Trump’s name appeared in the files, the US leader’s administration said there were no papers to be released and that it was a “hoax”.
The move sparked a civil war among MAGA supporters, with many disavowing their support for him. Trump has since attempted to distance himself from the scandal and play down his decades-long friendship with Epstein before the two men fell out.
Despite being pictured and filmed together on countless occasions, the president has made a virtue of not visiting the convicted sex offender’s private island. Speaking at a recent press conference, he insisted: “I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island.”
Photographs taken in 2000 show Trump and his wife Melania socialising with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Florida estate. In July 2020, days after Maxwell’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump raised eyebrows again by publicly expressing support for her.
When asked whether Maxwell, a former friend of his, would reveal the names of powerful men, Trump replied: “I don’t know, I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”