The investigation in 2019 led to Epstein’s arrest before he was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in August of that year
NEW YORK (TIP): A federal judge in New York on Wednesday, December 10, ordered the release of grand jury materials of the 2019 federal investigation and case against deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, weeks after the passage of a congressional measure requiring the disclosure of those documents, says an AP report.
Federal judges in two other cases have already ordered the unsealing of materials related to Ghislaine Maxwell, a former accused Epstein accomplice, and an earlier case against Epstein that was brought against him in Florida in the mid-2000s.
The 2019 investigation led to sex trafficking charges against Epstein before he was arrested and detained in a New York City jail. In August, 2019, he was found dead in his cell, with the New York City Medical Examiner’s office ruling it a suicide by hanging.
In his Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said that the November passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all records related to Epstein, Maxwell, and other individuals who may have been connected to the cases. “The Court hereby grants the Government’s motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected,” the judge wrote in a four-page ruling.
Berman added that he agreed with lawyers of Epstein’s victims who had submitted court documents. The disclosure of the grand jury materials, he wrote, should not “come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims.”
The judge also cited text from the Epstein transparency measure, signed into law by President Donald Trump in November, regarding the type of personal information and material that should be kept from the public eye. That includes the victims’ medical files and personal information, he said.
Wednesday’s ruling was issued before a Dec. 19 deadline that was set under the Epstein Act. A judge in Florida earlier this month issued a ruling to unseal and release the 2005 and 2007 grand jury materials related to a sex trafficking case against Epstein that led to him pleading guilty on lesser charges in 2008, while a separate New York judge ruled in favor of unsealing materials pertaining to Maxwell.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021 by a federal jury for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Similar requests to the federal judges by the Department of Justice (DOJ) were rejected earlier this year, citing federal rules around grand jury disclosures. However, with the passage of the congressional measure, the judges wrote that the new law overrules DOJ rules.
A renewed push to unseal the records was made in courts by the DOJ following the passage of the bill, which had received bipartisan support.
In court filings, the DOJ informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge had noted, “had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”
The agent testified over two days in 2019, on June 18 and July 2. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log. The July 2 session concluded with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein.
(Source: AP)
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