(AFP) – A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the criminal case against sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. District Judge Richard Berman said the government had failed to prove there were any special circumstances that would justify releasing what are normally secret records.
The Justice Department has been seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts to help defuse spiraling anger among President Donald Trump’s own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein’s crimes. Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections, died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls. Berman noted that the government holds a trove of Epstein investigation materials that it promised in February it would release to the public before abruptly announcing in July that it would not do so.
Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.” “The Government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials,” the judge said. “The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” the judge said, and its bid to unseal the Epstein grand jury transcripts “appears to be a ‘diversion.'”
The judge also said unsealing the grand jury proceedings could pose “possible threats” to the safety and privacy of Epstein’s more than 1,000 victims.
Berman’s ruling comes a little over a week after another federal judge declined to release the grand jury transcripts in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate to have been convicted of criminal charges in connection with his activities. Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein. Her lawyers had opposed releasing the transcripts, saying it could potentially impact her ongoing legal appeals of her conviction.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also Trump’s former personal lawyer — met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed. She was later moved to a minimum security prison. Trump, 79, was once a friend of Epstein and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.
A House of Representatives committee has subpoenaed the Epstein files and is to receive a first batch of records on Friday from the Justice Department. A committee spokesperson said the panel would begin publicly releasing some of the records after victim identification and child sexual abuse material has been redacted.
© 2024 AFP
