đź”— Share this article Judge Decides Justice Department Can Make Public Maxwell Court Materials A federal judge has determined that the Justice Department is authorized to carry out the disclosure of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Judicial Ruling Paves the Way for Records Release Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the decision after the DOJ formally requested in November to make public grand jury records and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This request could lead to the publication of a vast number of previously unreleased documents. The judge's decision, which follows the recent enactment of the Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The legislation mandates the DOJ to provide pertaining to Epstein records in a digitally searchable form by a specified date in December. Growing Trend of Disclosure Engelmayer is the latest jurist to allow the DOJ to release once-confidential Epstein court records. Recently, a Florida judge approved a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. A separate request concerning records from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case remains pending. Scope of Release Significantly Enlarged The Justice Department has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this disclosure when it passed the transparency act. The most recent filing dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include 18 categories of investigative materials during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation. These materials are reported to include items such as: Court-issued warrants Financial records Notes from victim interviews Data from digital devices Evidence from earlier Epstein investigations in Florida Case Background Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was taken into custody in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead 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 currently 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 stop the sharing of explicit imagery. Prior Releases A significant number of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have previously been made public through different channels, including lawsuits, official releases, and FOIA requests. Much of the material the DOJ now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos gathered by police in Florida and the federal prosecutor's office there, both of which investigated Epstein in the mid-2000s. That investigation ended in 2008 with a then-secret arrangement that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by entering a guilty plea to a state prostitution charge. He completed 13 months in a work-release program.