New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer denied a request from the Department of Justice to unseal transcripts from the trial that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell.
“The Government’s invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold,” according to the judge. “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 Court’s review confirmed that unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal new information of any consequence,” the ruling notes.
“And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous,” he added in the ruling. “The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or others, given in support of charges that later proceeded to trial,” the judge added in the decision.”
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, urged the judge to reject the effort to unseal the documents.
“Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” Markus wrote earlier this month. “Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”
“Because this is ongoing litigation in a criminal case involving a living defendant with existing legal remedies, the government’s motion should be denied,” Markus added.
Similar moves to release transcripts from Florida courts have also been denied.
