Manhattan judge denies Trump admin bid to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts
A Manhattan federal judge on Monday denied the Trump administration’s bid to unseal grand jury documents in the case against dead sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the transcripts revealed “next to nothing new” — in a scathing decision that ripped the Justice Department for overhyping the files, going so far as to suggest it was all a “diversion.”
“There is no ‘there’ there,” Engelmayer wrote in his searing 31-page ruling finding that the DOJ failed to make a compelling case to disclose the grand jury testimony, which typically remains sealed.
The “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,” he wrote.
“The court’s review confirmed that unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal new information of any consequence.”
In a sharp jab, the judge said that the best argument for releasing the files was to demonstrate how “disingenuous” the DOJ has been in its arguments for unsealing the transcripts.
“[One] might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” Engelmayer wrote.
The judge also said that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, when asked to highlight any new pieces of information in the testimony, flagged only “scattered words, clauses and occasional sentences” that would provide “next to nothing new” for any member of the public interested in knowing more about Epstein’s sick sex schemes.
The government had provided the judge with a copy of the transcripts and their highlighted portions on Friday.
“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s,” Engelmayer wrote.
“They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” he continued. “They do not reveal new venues at which their crimes occurred. They do not reveal new sources of their wealth. They do not explore the circumstances of Epstein’s death. They do not reveal the path of the Government’s investigation.”
No victim testified to the grand jury in either Maxwell or Epstein’s case, the government has said. The transcripts instead include two law enforcement witnesses who summarized the evidence for the limited purpose of securing the indictments.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Blanche petitioned for the release of the records July 18 amid ongoing controversy over the Epstein case, claiming that they could provide “significant” new information.
The move came over an uproar over Bondi’s decision not to release any of the 300-gigabyte trove of Epstein files that the government says it has in its possession. Those records include possibly juicy details about what FBI agents found in Epstein’s mansions in Manhattan, Palm Beach and on his private island.
In rare instances, grand jury testimony has been unsealed for historical cases of interest and situations where there was a “particularized need” that outweighed strict secrecy requirements.
But Engelmayer concluded: “Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it. It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents.”
“The information it contains is already almost entirely a matter of longstanding public record,” he wrote, especially as a result of testimony from Maxwell’s 2021 sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court.
The disgraced British socialite was convicted of grooming young girls for abuse by Epstein, and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
Blanche, President Trump’s former defense attorney, met with Maxwell last month at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee for hours last month.
Maxwell was later transferred to Federal Prison Camp Bryan, a minimum-security prison complex for women in Texas.
Earlier this month, the powerful House Oversight Committee postponed its planned deposition of Maxwell after subpoenaing her for deposition. When Congress reconvenes from the August recess next month, it is expected to grapple with legislation to compel the release of more Epstein files.
Engelmayer took note of the political interest in his decision, but stressed that it didn’t impact his ruling.
The government has separately urged another judge to unseal grand jury transcripts in Epstein’s case, and that judge has yet to rule.