Judge denies Justice Department request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts

What the court said

Judge Berman said the information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”

According to Berman’s ruling, no victims testified before the Epstein grand jury. The only witness, the judge wrote, was an FBI agent “who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”

The agent testified over two days, on June 18 and July 2, 2019. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow shown during the June 18 session and a call log shown during the July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. Both of those will also remain sealed, Berman ruled.

Maxwell’s case

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after her conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls and young women.

Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of President Donald Trump’s base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.

Since then, Trump administration officials have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.

“The government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein file,” Berman wrote in an apparent reference to the Justice Department’s refusal to release additional records on its own while simultaneously moving to unseal grand jury transcripts.

“By comparison,” he added, “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.”

Epstein’s death

Epstein died on July 23, 2019, in jail awaiting trial. While his death was ruled a case of suicide, it has been the subject of conspiracy theories, with many claiming that Epstein was killed in an effort to silence him.