Epstein Grand Jury Transcript Release Blocked Again by Judge (2)

A federal judge denied the Trump administration’s request to release grand jury testimony from Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal case, saying the US Justice Department is the “logical party” to disclose information about the disgraced financier.

US District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan on Wednesday said that there was no “special circumstance” to justify releasing files from the grand jury that indicted Epstein on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. He said the government has already assembled a “trove” of documents, interviews and exhibits that it has promised to share with the public.

The decision is not a surprise, as grand jury proceedings are shrouded in secrecy to protect victims and shield the process from public scrutiny. A federal judge in Florida last month rejected a motion to release grand jury transcripts related to Epstein in 2005 and 2007, and another judge in New York on Aug. 11 denied a bid to unseal transcripts in the case against Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence.

“The government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” Berman wrote. “By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the government’s possession,” the judge said, noting the testimony is “merely a hearsay snippet” of Epstein’s alleged conduct.

The Justice Department will begin turning over its own documents from the Epstein probe Friday after House Oversight subcommittee members voted to subpoena the records. The Republican-controlled Oversight Committee has yet to lay out its precise plans for how it will make those documents public or whether they will be immediately available to Democratic committee members, but Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie’s push to force a full House vote on releasing the files will ripen when the House returns in two weeks.

The Justice Department’s request for the grand jury transcripts came amid a controversy sparked by the Trump administration’s decision not to release documents that could reveal some of Epstein’s clients. In the wake of the backlash, Attorney General Pam Bondi asked courts in New York and Florida to unseal documents relating to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein for sex trafficking.

While the denials are likely to inflame conspiracy theories regarding the Epstein cases, it’s not clear how much the grand jury transcripts would have revealed. The Justice Department said in a court filing that the only witnesses at the New York proceedings were two law enforcement officers and that many of Epstein’s victims testified at Maxwell’s trial or told their stories in civil lawsuits.

There is “clear precedent and sound purpose” for sealing grand jury records, Berman said, and the government has filed to show any “special circumstance” that would would justify their release.

President Donald Trump has been facing numerous calls for more transparency into the cases against Epstein, who killed himself in his jail cell in August 2019 just weeks after he was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with sex trafficking. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in late July held two days of private meetings with Maxwell, as the administration seeks more information about what she knows about Epstein’s activities and who else might have been involved.

Read More: Ghislaine Maxwell Opposes Release of Epstein Case Documents

Maxwell has asked the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction, maintaining that she should never have been prosecuted and didn’t receive a fair trial. In early August, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer issued a subpoena for her to testify before his panel, and lawmakers have been planning to question her.

Maxwell’s lawyers had demanded she be given a grant of immunity for her testimony, a request that Comer initially dismissed. Maxwell will seek to delay any testimony to lawmakers until a resolution is reached regarding her Supreme Court petition, and would agree to publicly testify if she were granted clemency by Trump, her lawyers said.

Read More: Ghislaine Maxwell Gets Upgraded to Elizabeth Holmes’ Prison Camp

Multiple grand juries have heard cases related to the financier. In 2006 in Florida’s Palm Beach County, a state grand jury indicted Epstein after a woman reported to police that her 14-year-old daughter might have been molested at his Palm Beach mansion.

The next year, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted its own probe, US prosecutors convened a federal grand jury and drafted an indictment while negotiating with Epstein’s lawyers. He pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution and served 13 months in custody. In the 2019 indictment, prosecutors in New York alleged that he had abused girls as young as 13.

The case is US v Epstein, 19-cr-490, US District Court, Southern District of New York.

(Updates with background starting in eighth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Dolmetsch in Federal Court in Manhattan at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons, Peter Blumberg

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