A federal judge ordered the release of grand jury materials of the 2019 federal investigation against Jeffrey Epstein.
“The Court hereby grants the Government’s motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected,” U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman wrote. The disclosure of the documents, the judge noted, cannot “come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims.” Such an idea is “consistent” with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Berman added.
The Wednesday order follows one issued by Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on the release of files relating to Ghislaine Maxwell. “In modifying the protective order, the Court, consistent with the Act, puts in place a mechanism to protect victims from the inadvertent release of materials within the discovery in this case that would identify them or otherwise invade their privacy,” he wrote, adding, “The Act unambiguously applies to the discovery in this case.”
Englemayer went on to explain that the Act “governs ‘all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of [DOJ], including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices’ related to Maxwell, Epstein, and other enumerated subjects.”
“The Court thus finds that modification of the Protective Order is necessary to enable DOJ to carry out its legal obligations under the Act,” Engelmayer wrote.
Similarly, a federal judge in Florida allowed the release of grand jury transcripts from an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein last week.
