Judge denies DOJ's request to unseal Epstein grand jury records
A federal judge in New York has denied the Department of Justice's request to unseal grand jury material from Jeffrey Epstein's criminal case.
The decision on Wednesday marks the third and final time a federal judge has denied the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury materials related to Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019. The court's decision effectively ends the DOJ's attempt to release grand jury materials in the case, through the department plans to start sharing other Epstein files with Congress later this week.
The Trump administration has been dealing with the fallout from its decision not to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein following the blowback it received from some MAGA supporters after it announced that no additional files would be released.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman sharply criticized the Trump administration for seeking to unseal the grand jury records when the DOJ already has hundreds of thousands of pages of files related to Epstein in its possession.
"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 grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct," he wrote.
"The Government's complete information trove would better inform the public about the Epstein case," Berman added.
According to Berman, the grand jury materials are about 70 pages of transcripts -- primarily comprised of the testimony of an FBI agent who lacked direct knowledge of the case – a PowerPoint slideshow of exhibits, and a call log shown to the grand jury.
"The Government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials," he wrote.
Judge Berman also noted that the Trump administration failed to give sufficient notice to victims and that the release of the records could result in "possible threats to victims' safety and privacy."
Berman presided over Epstein's criminal case in 2019 on child sex trafficking charges and rejected Epstein's motion to be released on bail while awaiting trial just weeks before his death.
