U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer has granted a Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts and other investigative materials from the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case, citing the newly enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the public release of Epstein‑related documents by December 19, 2025. The ruling could make hundreds more records from the Epstein and Maxwell investigations available to the public, subject to redactions to protect victims’ identities.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act applies to discovery materials in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of financier Jeffrey Epstein. In his decision, Engelmayer said the law “unambiguously” covers the discovery in Maxwell’s case, clearing the way for grand jury transcripts and other materials to be unsealed at the Justice Department’s request.
According to court filings and multiple news outlets, including the Daily Wire and the Associated Press, the Justice Department asked in November for permission from two federal judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and related records from the Epstein and Maxwell investigations. The requests were made as the department moves to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in November. The act requires the Justice Department and other federal agencies to make Epstein‑related documents publicly available in a searchable format by December 19, 2025.
Engelmayer has repeatedly stressed the need to safeguard the privacy of victims. In earlier orders leading up to Tuesday’s ruling, he criticized the Justice Department for previously seeking to unseal materials without first giving adequate notice to Maxwell’s and Epstein’s victims, and he has directed prosecutors to ensure that identifying information is redacted before release. Under his latest order, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan must certify that the unsealed records will not expose victims’ identities.
The New York ruling follows a similar decision by a federal judge in Florida, who last week granted a Justice Department request to release grand jury materials from an abandoned federal investigation into Epstein in the mid‑2000s. Together, the decisions reflect a judicial consensus that the transparency law overrides traditional secrecy rules that normally shield grand jury proceedings from public view.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on five federal counts related to sex trafficking and other offenses for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls, including by arranging for them to visit his homes and other properties. She is serving a 20‑year prison sentence. Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex‑trafficking charges.
With Engelmayer’s order, the Justice Department is expected to release a wide range of investigative records, including grand jury testimony and other materials that had previously remained under seal. The judge and federal prosecutors have emphasized that the records do not identify anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell as having sexual contact with minors and are not expected to reveal new methods of their crimes or previously unknown clients.
The Daily Wire has reported that, earlier this year, Maxwell agreed to an interview with the Justice Department about Epstein’s connections to wealthy and politically prominent figures, including Trump. In that account of the interview, Maxwell is quoted as saying she “never saw any man doing something inappropriate with a woman of any age.” When asked specifically about Trump, she reportedly described him as “always very cordial and very kind to me” and “a gentleman in all respects.”
In the same interview, according to the Daily Wire’s reporting, Maxwell said she disagreed with the official conclusion that Epstein died by suicide, stating: “I do not believe he died by suicide,” while acknowledging that she did not know what had happened instead.
The Daily Wire further reported that Maxwell is considering seeking a commutation of her sentence from the Trump administration and that, following her cooperation with the Justice Department interview, she was transferred to a lower‑security federal women’s prison. Those steps have not been publicly confirmed by the Justice Department.
As the government works to meet the December 19 deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Engelmayer’s order ensures that a substantial tranche of once‑secret records from the Maxwell case will soon be opened to public scrutiny, even as courts and prosecutors continue to navigate how to balance transparency with the protection of victims.
