A federal judge in Manhattan on Monday rejected the Trump administration's request to release grand jury transcripts from the Justice Department investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
The department asked the court last month to unseal the grand jury transcripts, which are generally secret, saying there was "abundant public interest" in the case. The unusual request was part of the administration's effort to tamp down the intense public blowback over its handling of the Epstein files.
But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer said that there were no special circumstances to justify releasing the transcripts in Maxwell's case.
"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," Engelmayer wrote.
He said the materials provide no new insight into Epstein or Maxwell clients, nor new information about the venue, new sources of their wealth, or the circumstances of Epstein's death.
"There is no 'there' there," the judge added.
Epstein died in a federal lockup in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death, which authorities have repeatedly said was a suicide, has fueled conspiracy theories about Epstein's abuse of underage girls and the actions of his associates.
President Trump and some of the top officials in his administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel, for years helped stoke those conspiracy theories.
They promised transparency on the Epstein matter, but in July the Justice Department and FBI released a memo that knocked down several of those theories and said no further materials from the Epstein investigations would be made public, touching off public outrage including from Trump's MAGA base.
In an effort to contain the fallout, the president, who knew Epstein, asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury transcripts from the department's investigations of Epstein and Maxwell.
The department followed up by asking three federal judges — two in Manhattan and one in Florida — to unseal the grand jury transcripts from investigations into Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. The judge in Florida, Robin Rosenberg, denied the request, saying 11th Circuit law doesn't allow for the release of such records.
Manhattan-based judge Engelmayer falls under the 2nd Circuit, where precedent allows for the public release of grand jury materials under certain special circumstances. In this instance, the judge said, that high threshold was not met.
Even if the transcripts had been released, expectations were low that anything significant would have emerged from them.
The DOJ has previously said in court filings that in the Epstein case, a single FBI agent was the only witness to testify before the grand jury. In the case against Maxwell, the department says the same FBI agent as well as a New York Police Department detective were the only two witnesses.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for charges of facilitating Epstein's abuse of girls.
Late last month, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal attorney, interviewed Maxwell behind closed doors to question her about Epstein.
The Justice Department has not provided any details on the meeting, who took part or what Maxwell said.
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