The long-shielded federal case file on Jeffrey Epstein is about to go public. US District Judge Richard M. Berman on Wednesday OKed the Justice Department's request to unseal records from the federal grand jury investigation into Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The AP reports the move is a reversal of Berman's earlier decision to keep the material under wraps and follows Congress' recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act; under it, the Justice Department must release its Epstein-related materials by Dec. 19 with victims' names and identifying details redacted.
Berman's ruling came a day after US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer approved a similar request covering the grand jury records and other investigative files in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell. Together, the orders could produce the most extensive look yet at how federal authorities investigated Epstein and Maxwell, per the New York Times, though the AP notes Berman previously characterized the roughly 70 pages of material to be released as not particularly revelatory.
Still, the material being unsealed in both cases will reach beyond grand jury transcripts and include a sizable cache of investigative materials that had been turned over to defense lawyers under protective orders and "kept confidential for years," per the Times.
The renewed push for disclosure came from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who this summer was turned down by both judges on the grounds of grand jury secrecy. Last month, citing the new transparency law, Bondi expanded her request to include the materials covered by the protective orders.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
