US Politics
New York judge refuses to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell’s grand jury transcripts despite Trump’s request
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A New York judge has refused a request from the Trump administration to unseal the federal grand jury transcripts in the case of sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.S. government had failed to cite any “special circumstance” that would warrant release of the transcripts and exhibits in Maxwell’s sex abuse case, wrote Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in an opinion Monday.
“The Government’s invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold,” Engelmayer wrote. “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.”
The decision comes after President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce “any and all pertinent” grand jury transcripts in the criminal cases of Maxwell and Epstein, in a bid to tamp down further conspiracies over the government’s botched handling of the so-called “Epstein Files.”
A Justice Department memo on July 6 stated that no further investigation was warranted into Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking schemes. It also concluded that Epstein had died by suicide and there was no evidence of a “client list” of high-profile associates.
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The memo caused uproar on both sides of aisle, and among Trump’s MAGA base.
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in a scheme to abuse and exploit girls with Epstein. The disgraced financier died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
It is unclear how much the grand jury transcripts would have revealed had they been released. The Justice Department acknowledged that the documents contained no testimony from witnesses, outside of law enforcement. Experts have said that these documents only account for a small fraction of the files related to the investigations.
Several Epstein survivors had supported making the grand jury transcripts public, while Maxwell had opposed the move. Her legal team has asked the Supreme Court to take up her case, and her lawyers argued that releasing the raw transcripts would “inevitably influence any future legal proceeding” and cause “severe and irrevocable” reputational harm. Maxwell has never been allowed to review the documents, the attorneys said in a memo to the court earlier this month.
Maxwell was interviewed by the Justice Department last month as the Trump administration tried to contain fallout from the Epstein Files. During the meeting, she said that she never saw Trump do anything that would cause concern.
“She was asked about maybe about 100 different people. She answered questions about everybody and she didn’t hold anything back,” Maxwell’s attorney David Markus said. “She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question. So we’re very proud of her.”
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Soon after, she was moved from a Florida federal prison to a Texas prison camp, known as “Club Fed” because of its relatively relaxed environment. The prison also houses Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah.
Separately from the Maxwell case, a federal judge is considering whether to release the grand jury transcripts that led to Epstein’s indictment.
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for files in Epstein’s case, and issued subpoenas to conduct sworn questioning of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Former President Clinton and President Trump, were among Epstein’s many powerful friends. Both have said they knew nothing of his crimes until he was charged and neither has been formally accused or charged with any crime.
Trump and Epstein were friendly in the 1990s and early 2000s and were seen together at parties in Palm Beach and New York.
Trump also called Epstein “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York Magazine article, and flight records show that he flew on the financier’s private jet. Their friendship dissolved in the mid-2000s, with the president telling reporters he hadn’t spoken to him in 15 years following Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
