Judge denies Trump DOJ's bid to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records

MANHATTAN (CN) — Ghislaine Maxwell’s grand jury records will stay sealed after a federal judge on Monday rejected the Department of Justice’s request to release them.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse and traffic young girls. Earlier this summer, the Justice Department sought to unseal records related to Maxwell’s prosecution after the Trump administration took intense criticism for its failure to release files related to Epstein’s investigation.

But in his Monday ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York found that the circumstances don’t warrant him taking the “extraordinary step” of defying age-old precedent, in which grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret.

Contrary to claims from the Justice Department, Engelmayer found that the public interest in these records was marginal at best, as they don’t reveal unknown information about powerful figures potentially involved in Maxwell and Epstein’s crimes.

“A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote in his 31-page ruling.

“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor,” Engelmayer added. “They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes.”

That was the entire basis for unsealing the grand jury records in the first place, the judge said, calling the premise “demonstrably false.” He criticized the government for suggesting otherwise, as it claimed it was seeking to unseal the materials to show its commitment of “transparency to the American public.”

Engelmayer even suggested that the Justice Department’s claim was disingenuous and not a true commitment to openness, but rather a vehicle to quell criticism of the Trump administration.

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he said.

Based on the Justice Department stoking interest in the records, Engelmayer said a member of the public would come away feeling “disappointed and misled” after reading them. The judge noted in an aside that there is precedent in “permitting a court to order the release of a grand jury testimony to correct a movant’s misleading public characterization of it,” but that this wasn’t a necessary step in this case to evaluate the government’s trustworthiness.

A Department of Justice spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department previously sought the release of grand jury transcripts about a probe of Epstein by federal prosecutors in Florida, but that too was rejected by a judge last month.

The government has another request still pending for grand jury records related to Epstein’s federal indictment in Manhattan.

President Donald Trump’s second term sparked a renewed interest in the cases of Epstein and Maxwell, particularly among the president’s supporters. Several of Trump’s senior law enforcement officials had promised to release the so-called “Epstein files,” including an apocryphal list of powerful pedophilic clients, only to renege on that vow after taking office.

It’s put Trump himself in a particularly tight situation, as his former friendship with Epstein is fueling speculation that he is engaging in a cover-up to protect himself and those close to him.

Earlier this summer, Maxwell met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, once Trump’s personal criminal attorney, for an interview about her conviction. She was transferred to a minimum security prison camp in Texas shortly after.

Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 — another episode that sparked widespread debate and doubt among the American public.

The narrative still has a stranglehold on Washington, as federal lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee issued congressional subpoenas last week to former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and eight other former White House officials as it ramps up a probe into Epstein and Maxwell.

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