US Justice Department again asks judge to unseal Jeffrey Epstein’s grand jury materials

The Justice Department said the Congressional action overrode existing law in a way that permits the unsealing of the grand jury records. Judge Richard Berman previously denied a Trump administration request to make the Epstein grand jury transcripts public.

Why judge rejected the request in the past

Berman, who presided over Epstein’s 2019 case, ruled in August that a “significant and compelling reason” to deny the request and keep the transcripts sealed was that information contained in the transcripts “pales in comparison” to investigative information and materials already in the Justice Department’s possession.

Berman wrote that the government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials “dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials” and that the grand jury testimony “is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”

Two other judges have also denied the public release of material from investigations into Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of young women and girls.

The Justice Department has said that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, “had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”

The DOJ is again seeking the release of the Epstein documents at a time when the Trump administration is under increasing pressure, including from some Republicans who are seeking transparency in the cases.

Recently, the House Oversight Committee released a new tranche of documents, including several emails from the estate of the convicted sex offender showing Epstein’s deep-running connections to the US political elite, including Trump and Bill Clinton.