A judge in the United States has authorized the Justice Department to disclose grand jury records connected to the legal case involving Ghislaine Maxwell, who is imprisoned for trafficking underage girls with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in New York has approved the Justice Department’s plea to unveil the documents as mandated by a recent law requiring the Attorney General to make public all unclassified files pertaining to investigations of Epstein and Maxwell. A Florida judge issued a similar directive in Epstein’s case recently.
The files are in high demand by both critics of President Donald Trump and his supporters, all seeking more transparency in the government’s inquiries. The documents could offer additional insights into Epstein’s connections to affluent and influential individuals, including Trump.
Despite Trump initially opposing the release of the files, he eventually changed course just before lawmakers voted on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which he signed into law. Trump, who claims to have severed ties with Epstein well before the latter’s arrest in 2019, had faced pressure to release the records.
Many of Trump’s followers believe that his administration concealed Epstein’s associations with powerful figures and obscured details surrounding Epstein’s demise in a Manhattan prison in 2019. Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide.
The Epstein scandal has been a persistent challenge for Trump, who previously fueled conspiracy theories about Epstein but now dismisses the files as a Democratic ploy to divert attention from his administration’s achievements.
Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of child sex trafficking and other crimes, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence while maintaining her innocence. In a July interview with a senior Justice Department official, Maxwell stated that she never witnessed inappropriate behavior by Trump.