A federal judge in Florida has declined to release grand jury records tied to the Jeffrey Epstein criminal investigation, dealing an early blow to the Justice Department’s attempt to ease growing public and political pressure surrounding the case.
Judge Robin Rosenberg denied the DOJ’s request to unseal documents from one of several grand juries convened during the Epstein probe, stating that the department’s justification—“extensive public interest”—does not meet the legal threshold for disclosure. Courts typically require such requests to be part of an active judicial proceeding, which the DOJ’s filing was not.
“My hands are tied,” Rosenberg wrote in her order, emphasizing that public interest alone is not enough to override long-standing rules protecting grand jury secrecy.
The move marks the first formal rejection of the Biden Justice Department’s recent push to release more information about Epstein’s criminal network amid mounting outrage from lawmakers, media outlets, and Trump-aligned conservatives. President Donald Trump himself has demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi aggressively pursue the release of all Epstein-related evidence.
The material in question comprises only a fraction of the thousands of documents linked to Epstein’s case—many of which remain in DOJ custody and may never have been presented to a grand jury. Still, the ruling underscores the legal hurdles the government faces in making any of those materials public.
Rosenberg ordered that a new case be opened to publicly docket both the DOJ’s request and her ruling, citing ongoing public interest in the matter.
Meanwhile, the DOJ signaled earlier this month in a memo that it does not intend to voluntarily release any further Epstein records. The same memo also claimed there is no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” of high-profile men involved in his alleged sex trafficking ring, and reiterated that federal investigators found no foul play in his 2019 jailhouse death.
In a separate development, a federal judge in New York also denied a request by Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team to access grand jury transcripts related to the case. Maxwell’s attorneys had sought to review the material before deciding whether to support the DOJ’s unsealing efforts.
Judge Paul Engelmayer denied the motion, writing: “It is black-letter law that defendants generally are not entitled to access grand jury materials.” However, he added that if, upon reviewing the documents himself, he finds excerpts that could help Maxwell’s lawyers, he may consider releasing those limited portions.
The DOJ now has until next week to provide further legal justification for unsealing the transcripts. Both Maxwell’s legal team and Epstein’s alleged victims have until August 5 to formally state their positions on the matter.
A source close to Maxwell told CNN that she plans to oppose the public release of the grand jury material.
