A New York district judge ordered the release of grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case on Wednesday. Judge Richard M. Berman cited the Epstein Transparency Act, enacted Nov. 19, which mandates that any files or materials related to the late sex offender be made public “not later than 30 days” after enactment. In August, Berman—who presided over the 2019 case—rejected the Justice Department’s request to unseal the transcripts, stating that they contained nothing more than “merely a hearsay snippet.” He added that the 70 pages of transcripts “pales in comparison” to the materials “in the hands of the Department of Justice,” which total around 100,000 pages. The decision comes as U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the unsealing of grand jury materials related to the case against convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell—Epstein’s co-conspirator—and as a Florida judge ordered the release of grand jury materials from an abandoned probe into Epstein and Maxwell’s conduct between 2005 and 2007. Engelmayer also acknowledged, like Berman, that the materials on Maxwell “would not add to public knowledge” and “do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor.” Under the Epstein Transparency Act, all unclassified materials related to Epstein must be released to the public by Dec. 19.
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