A federal judge in Florida has rejected one of the Justice Department’s bids to make public secret grand jury transcripts from the investigation of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg concluded she was required to dismiss the department’s request because of longstanding grand jury secrecy rules that include only a few narrow exceptions — none of which she said the Justice Department met in this case.
The Obama appointee’s ruling is a setback for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s effort to release Epstein-related grand jury materials — part of a broader effort to stave off the fury of Trump’s MAGA base, which has demanded public disclosures of evidence. Trump’s supporters have pushed for the administration to reveal Epstein’s purported “client list,” which they believe contains evidence of sex trafficking by high-profile associates. Earlier this month Trump’s DOJ and FBI said no such client list exists, and Bondi said she wouldn’t release additional materials.
Despite the rejection in Florida, the Justice Department has another opportunity.
DOJ leaders have also asked two federal judges in New York, where prosecutors brought cases against Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, to unseal grand jury transcripts. And New York’s federal courts have generally taken a less stringent approach to grand jury secrecy.
The Justice Department filed an unsealing request in Florida because two federal grand juries were convened in West Palm Beach in 2005 and 2007 to investigate Epstein’s actions. Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on sex trafficking charges, never faced federal charges in Florida. In 2007, he struck a deal with federal and state prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty in state court to two felony soliciting charges, including procuring a minor to engage in prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
DOJ acknowledged its request to unseal materials in Florida likely would violate the court’s longstanding precedent but encouraged Rosenberg to consider it because of the “significance of the matter.”
The unsealing requests pending in New York aren’t expected to be resolved for several weeks, as the judges weighing those requests have asked for additional materials from the Justice Department, the victims and representatives for both Epstein and Maxwell.
On Wednesday, the judge overseeing the Maxwell case denied her requestto view the grand jury materials, writing that “it is black-letter law that defendants are generally not entitled to access grand jury materials.” Maxwell’s lawyers had said they sought the records to help “craft a response” to the judge’s order to communicate their position on the unsealing request.
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