The Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein was denied by a federal judge Wednesday.
Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan denied the request after it had already been turned down by the judge presiding over the case against Epstein co-conspirator and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell, a British socialite, is currently serving 20 years after being convicted of sex trafficking. Epstein died in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Judge Berman said any information in the grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”
“A significant and compelling reason to reject the Government’s position in this litigation is that the Government has already undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the Epstein case and, not surprisingly, has assembled a ’trove’ of Epstein documents, interviews and exhibits,” the judge wrote. “And, the Government committed that it would share its Epstein investigation materials with the public.”
“The government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials,” the ruling said.
Judge Berman said the motion to get the transcripts “appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.” He also said the privacy and safety of the victims is another reason not to unseal the records.
The judge called the grand jury testimony “a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct.”
He was the third judge to deny the request. A federal judge in Florida also denied the bid to unseal the grand jury records.
The department’s request followed a frenzy of attention on the Epstein files after Attorney General Pam Bondi and others in the administration promised to release them, but did not.
Ms. Bondi said there was no incriminating “client list” of people who participated in Epstein’s sex-trafficking plans and that no further files would be released. She had led Justice Department and FBI officials in reviewing the files and said “that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
Mr. Trump has said he supports the release of the grand jury records “subject only to Court Approval.”
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had given the Justice Department until Tuesday to respond to its subpoena for the Epstein files, and the department said it will start turning over documents on Friday.
A request for the documents from Senate Democrats, with a deadline of last Friday, has come and gone, with no answer. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, threatened to sue the Trump administration over its withholding of the files.
— This article includes wire-service reports.