Two federal judges in Manhattan said in similar court orders on Tuesday that they would try to “expeditiously” resolve motions by Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking to unseal grand jury transcripts from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
But both judges ordered the government to file legal arguments setting out the “special circumstances” that would justify disclosing the materials, which are shielded by grand jury secrecy.
The judges ordered the government to submit two complete sets of grand jury transcripts from the cases, one without redactions and one with them made in the form that the government proposed to make public.
The government should also cite any other grand jury materials, like exhibits that were shown to the grand jury, the judges’ orders said.
The orders come in response to motions Ms. Bondi filed on Friday as President Trump has sought to quell criticism from many of his supporters who want more information on what the government knows about Mr. Epstein’s activities and any prominent figures who were in his circle.
The judges handling Ms. Bondi’s motions are Richard M. Berman, who oversaw Mr. Epstein’s case before he was found dead in his cell in 2019, a death that was ruled a suicide; and Paul A. Engelmayer, who was recently assigned to the case of Ms. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. (The original judge in Ms. Maxwell’s case, Alison J. Nathan, was later appointed to the Second Circuit appeals court in Manhattan.)
Judge Berman set Aug. 5 as a deadline for any letter to be submitted setting out a position on the proposed disclosure on behalf of Mr. Epstein. Judge Engelmayer set a similar deadline for Ms. Maxwell to inform the court of her position on the proposed release of records.
The judges also set the same date as a deadline for victims of the sex-trafficking scheme to share their positions on the government’s request.
The judges made it clear there were potential privacy issues involved in releasing the records.
Judge Berman wrote, quoting from a memo by the Justice Department and the F.B.I. summarizing a review of records in the Epstein case, that according to the government, “Epstein harmed over one thousand victims. Each suffered unique trauma. Sensitive information related to these victims is intertwined throughout the materials.”
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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