Grand jury transcripts in Ghislaine Maxwell case contain nothing new, DOJ filing says
Much of what the Justice Department wants a federal judge to unseal from the Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury investigation is already known and, at least so far, the attorney general is seeking to unseal nothing else, according to a new court filing Tuesday.
The Justice Department turned over a version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts that identifies which information is not already publicly known. That annotated version shows that "much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony -- with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses -- was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses," the filing said.
The Justice Department is asking two federal judges in New York to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein cases. It is not asking the judges to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general asked for several more days to consider "its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits," the filing said.
The Epstein grand jury met twice on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019, before he was indicted on charges accusing him of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of minor girls.
The Maxwell grand jury met on June 29, 2020, and July 8, 2020, before she was indicted on charges she conspired with Epstein to entice minors to travel so they could engage in illegal sex acts. It also met on March 29, 2021, after she was indicted, as prosecutors sought to add charges for a superseding indictment.
Maxwell was convicted and is serving a 20-year prison sentence at an all-female federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was recently moved from a minimum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Justice Department said it has provided notice of the unsealing motions to all but one of the victims who are referenced in the grand jury transcripts. Federal prosecutors have been unable to contact that remaining victim.
"With respect to victims who are not identified in the grand jury transcripts but who have previously received victim notifications in the Maxwell and Epstein matters, the Government will over the coming days alert those victims to the fact of the unsealing motions," the filing said.
Lawyers for some victims urge caution
Lawyers who who represent several victims of Epstein urged caution before the release of any grand jury transcripts.
The lawyers told a federal judge on Tuesday that they "were quite surprised" to learn that the government sought to unseal grand jury testimony before conferring with the victims and their attorneys.
Referencing previous litigation on behalf of victims who challenged Epstein's so-called "sweetheart deal" with federal prosecutors in Florida, the attorneys called it "especially troubling…that the government has once again proceeded in a manner that disregards victims' rights – suggesting that the hard-learned lessons of the past have not taken hold."
"This omission reinforces the perception that the victims are, at best, an afterthought to the current administration," wrote attorneys Brad Edwards, Brittany Henderson and Paul Cassell.
The letter notes that several of their clients have contacted them expressing "deep anxiety" over whether the records, if released, would be adequately redacted to protect their privacy,
The victims are generally supportive of transparency, the letter stated, but ask that prior to any disclosure of grand jury testimony that the Court afford the victims and their counsel be afforded an opportunity to review the records and to propose additional redactions necessary to avoid "re-identification or harassment" of victims.
"The survivors support transparency when it can be achieved without sacrificing their safety, privacy, or dignity. But transparency cannot come at the expense of the very people whom the justice system is sworn to protect—particularly amid contemporaneous events that magnify risk and trauma. Several victims have already died by suicide, drug overdose, or under tragic circumstances tied directly to the trauma caused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," the letter stated.
What key witness in Maxwell's 2021 trial says
In a separate filing, a lawyer for Annie Farmer, one of the key witnesses who testified against Maxwell at her 2021 criminal trial wrote to judges in New York on Tuesday to say that Farmer "strongly supports" the release of grand jury transcripts as long as they are redacted to protect the victims.
"Transparency is critical to justice, and the public has a legitimate interest in understanding the full scope of Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes, particularly where those actions caused lasting harm to others," wrote Sigrid McCawley, one of Farmer's lawyers.
While supportive of the DOJ's effort to unseal the grand jury transcripts, Farmer's letter takes issue with the Trump administration's recent public statements that no further criminal investigations of Epstein associates are forthcoming.
"To be clear, we do not agree that there is insufficient evidence to support investigations into third parties who enabled Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes and participated in them. Numerous individuals have yet to be investigated and several civil cases have been filed addressing other individuals' central involvement with Epstein's and Maxwell's sex trafficking," the letter stated.
"To date, however, the combined forces of our country's law enforcement agencies have only ever arrested these two individuals in connection with crimes committed against countless young women and girls, and the Government's recent suggestion that no further criminal investigations are forthcoming is a cowardly abdication of its duties to protect and serve," wrote McCawley.
