A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department may unseal grand jury records from the s*x trafficking case involving Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell, a longtime associate and co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on s*x trafficking charges.
According to the Associated Press, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer approved a Justice Department request to unseal materials from the Maxwell case, including grand jury transcripts, which are typically kept confidential.
As reported by The New York Times, Engelmayer pointed to a law signed by then-President Donald Trump that directs the Justice Department to release certain files connected to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations.
A separate Justice Department motion seeking to unseal records related to Epstein is pending before another judge, who has not yet issued a ruling, per the outlet.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal s*x trafficking charges.
The push to release Epstein-related files has fueled intense political debate, with critics pressing the Trump administration to make those documents public.
Trump was once a social acquaintance of Epstein, the disgraced financier, before their relationship reportedly soured.
Epstein also maintained ties with several prominent figures, including former Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard president Larry Summers, who said he would withdraw from public appearances after it emerged that he had communicated with Epstein the day before Epstein’s arrest.
