A second federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s request to unseal court documents connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case, accusing the Trump administration of being “disingenuous” when asking for grand jury transcripts related to the criminal investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Judge Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in his Monday ruling that the DOJ’s “entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” CNBC reported.
Going on to call the government’s argument for disclosure “disingenuous,” Engelmayer argued that “unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal new information of any consequence.”
“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” the Obama-appointed judge continued.
He added, “Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it. It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents.”
Engelmayer’s ruling comes three weeks after a federal judge in Florida made a similar decision, refusing to grant the administration’s request to unseal transcripts related to a 20-year-old criminal investigation into Epstein in the state.
U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Florida Robin Rosenberg wrote in her denial that an unrelated 2020 ruling by the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “does not permit” her to unseal grand jury records in instances not covered by the criminal procedure rule, CNBC reported.
In its argument for the transcripts, the DOJ pointed to a “strong public interest in the historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein,” and argued that “many of the rationales supporting grand jury secrecy” no longer apply since the billionaire’s 2019 death, which the department claimed was a suicide in July.
Like Rosenberg, Engelmayer also cited a past unrelated legal ruling which said that “the policy that ‘proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret’ is ‘older than our Nation itself.’”
The Trump administration’s interest in unsealing transcripts came after the DOJ’s conclusion on Epstein garnered backlash from lawmakers and some supporters, with the president ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval” on the case, which he has repeatedly called a “scam” and “hoax” by Democrats.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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