New York court denies US Justice Department request to disclose grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell case
A judge in New York has rejected a request from the US Justice Department to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell’s grand jury transcripts.
The ruling by Judge Paul Engelmayer stated that there is nothing in the grand jury record that would shed new light on the case.
The judge insisted the government failed to cite any “special circumstance” that would warrant their release.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking - namely the procurement of underage girls for the purposes of sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.
A longtime associate of Mr Epstein, Maxwell, 63, the on-off girlfriend of the billionaire, was moved to an all-women’s minimum security prison in Texas last week.
On Monday, a District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected the Justice Department’s bid to open the material contained within the 31-page order.
The judge was seen to visibly scoff at the Justice Department’s argument, according to outlet CNBC.
According to court filings, Justice Department lawyers had argued the circumstances of the Maxwell case warranted the release of the grand jury transcripts and exhibits - articles that generally remain secret under the US justice system.
On July 23, the Justice Department had asked the judges to unseal documents linked to the Maxwell and Epstein cases which are said to contain incriminating material that formed the basis for the federal charges against them - a request that was denied.
Writing on the rejection, Engelmayer added: "The Government’s invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the threshold."
"Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false."
Last week’s decision to downgrade Maxwell to a minimum security facility came after her lawyer was seen to answer questions from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over nine hours.
It comes amid uproar over the department’s review of the so-called "Epstein files".
The latest ruling comes after Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce “any and all pertinent” grand jury transcripts in the criminal cases of Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein to reduce further conspiracies linked to their handling of the "Epstein Files.”
The Justice Department also submitted a further request before another federal judge in Manhattan to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein’s later indictment - these requests are still pending, according to court documents.
Publishing his verdict on Monday, Engelmayer said the decision on the Maxwell transcripts was linked to a 1973 legal ruling, which said that “the policy that ‘proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret" is "older than our Nation itself.”
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