Judge denies DOJ bid to release Epstein grand jury transcripts

A U.S. judge on Wednesday denied a U.S. Justice Department bid to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Jeffrey Epstein’s case.

A similar records request is pending in New York.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.

The Justice Department last week asked the judge to release records to quell a storm among supporters of President Donald Trump who believe there was a conspiracy to protect Epstein’s clients, conceal videos of crimes being committed and other evidence.

FILE - US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Request to release Epstein grand jury transcripts submitted

The backstory:

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the request last Friday, asking judges to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and Maxwell, saying "transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration."

Epstein killed himself at age 66 in his federal jail cell in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, while Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed after her December 2021 sex trafficking conviction for luring girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

The other side:

Attorney Sarah Krissoff, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, called the request in the prosecutions of Epstein and imprisoned British socialite Maxwell "a distraction."

"The president is trying to present himself as if he’s doing something here and it really is nothing," Krissoff told The Associated Press in a weekend interview.

Krissoff and Joshua Naftalis, a Manhattan federal prosecutor for 11 years before entering private practice in 2023, said grand jury presentations are purposely brief.

Naftalis said Southern District prosecutors present just enough to a grand jury to get an indictment but "it’s not going to be everything the FBI and investigators have figured out about Maxwell and Epstein."

"People want the entire file from however long. That’s just not what this is," he said, estimating that the transcripts, at most, probably amount to a few hundred pages.

"It’s not going to be much," Krissoff said, estimating the length at as little as 60 pages "because the Southern District of New York’s practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury."

"They basically spoon feed the indictment to the grand jury. That’s what we’re going to see," she said. "I just think it’s not going to be that interesting. ... I don’t think it’s going to be anything new."

The Source: Information for this article was taken from reporting by Reuters and the New York Times and previous reporting by The Associated Press. 

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