Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a motion last week in a Florida court, demanding that it unseal grand jury transcripts relating to Jeffrey Epstein. The motion follows President Trump signing the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” which requires documents pertaining to Epstein to be released.
The bill directs the Attorney General to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices.”
“No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary,” the bill explains, although any redactions “must be accompanied by a written justification published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress.”
Bondi wrote in the motion that the court “should authorize the Department of Justice to release the grand jury transcripts and lift any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure.” The filing states that the DOJ will “work with the relevant United States Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information. Because of the Act’s thirty-day deadline for production, the Department of Justice requests an expedited ruling on this motion.”
It further declares that in order for the DOJ to comply with the Act, the court must “enter an order allowing the Department to publicly release the grand-jury materials in this case as well as lift any and all preexisting protective orders.”
