In a stinging rebuke, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer has rejected the Justice Department’s bid to unseal grand jury transcripts from the case that led to Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking indictment — accusing the DOJ of pushing a “demonstrably false” narrative about the contents.
In a 31-page ruling released Monday, Engelmayer said the public would “learn next to nothing new” from the transcripts, and that those expecting fresh bombshells about Jeffrey Epstein’s network would leave “disappointed and misled.”
> “Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine lode of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates, they definitively are not that,” he wrote. “There is no ‘there’ there.”
The judge’s order dismantled the DOJ’s portrayal of the transcripts as a step toward transparency amid public pressure to release Epstein-related files. Instead, Engelmayer suggested the request might have been about creating the illusion of openness while distracting from other controversies.
According to the decision, the grand juries that indicted Maxwell in 2020 and 2021 did not hear from any victims, eyewitnesses, suspects, or even records custodians. The only witnesses were an FBI agent and a New York City police detective, whose testimony was largely repeated during Maxwell’s 2021 trial or disclosed in civil cases.
The DOJ’s push to unseal the transcripts comes against the backdrop of growing distrust — particularly among Trump supporters — who believe the government is concealing critical Epstein information. A Reuters-Ipsos poll last month found that 62% of Republicans and 82% of Democrats believe the government is hiding Epstein’s client list.
Engelmayer also faulted the DOJ for bypassing the prosecutors who actually tried the Maxwell case, instead relying on Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who had recently interviewed Maxwell and signed the motion. Notably, the department fired Maurene Comey, one of the last remaining prosecutors on the case, just days before filing the request.
Florida attorney Brad Edwards, who represents nearly two dozen Epstein accusers, agreed with the judge’s assessment. “The grand jury materials contain very little in the way of evidentiary value anyway,” he said, adding that many victims wish to protect their privacy.
The ruling aligns with other federal court decisions. Last month, a Florida judge denied a similar motion to unseal Epstein grand jury records from 2005 and 2007. Another judge in Manhattan is still weighing a separate request.
Maxwell, who is appealing her 20-year sentence, opposed the release. She was recently transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security facility in Texas after a two-day DOJ interview.
Epstein died in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking minors. Attorney General Pam Bondi has maintained that no “client list” exists and claimed much of Epstein’s illicit digital material was internet-sourced child pornography.
Engelmayer’s decision may quiet speculation about the transcripts themselves — but it’s unlikely to silence the broader demands for Epstein-related disclosures, which continue to haunt both the DOJ and the political figures tied to the scandal.
