Judge Grants Justice Department Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Records

A federal judge on Friday granted a Department of Justice (DOJ) request to unseal grand jury records a Florida case involving sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith wrote in a brief order that a recent federal law ordering the release of records related to Epstein and Maxwell cases supersedes federal rules prohibiting the release of grand jury materials.

The measure, called the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” passed in both the House and Senate before it was signed into law by President Donald Trump in November. The law forces the DOJ, the FBI, and prosecutors to release material related to the three Epstein and Maxwell investigations by Dec. 19, 2025.

“The Act applies to unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,” the order stated. “Consequently, the later-enacted and specific language of the Act trumps Rule 6’s prohibition on disclosure.”

The DOJ renewed a request to release the material to the public in November after the law was signed by Trump, which Smith granted on Friday. He noted that previous requests by the DOJ were denied because they violated federal rules in which “a government attorney is prohibited from disclosing a matter before the grand jury, unless the rules provide otherwise.”

In its request, the DOJ sought the unsealing of documents in three Epstein-connected cases, including a 2006–2007 Florida grand jury investigation into Epstein, his 2019 sex trafficking case in New York before his death in August 2019, and the 2021 New York sex trafficking case involving Maxwell.

The Florida request was approved on Friday by Smith. The New York requests have not yet been granted by judges in response to a Nov. 21 submission from the DOJ that again asks for the documents to be released after the federal Epstein disclosure law was passed.

“The Act requires the Department of Justice to publish the grand jury transcripts associated with the above-referenced grand jury investigations, unless one of the permitted bases for withholding applies,” the DOJ said, referring to the 2021 Maxwell case and the 2019 Epstein case.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of working with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to lesser charges as part of a non-prosecution agreement that he reached with federal prosecutors, serving out much of his term on a work-release program.

Weeks after he was arrested in 2019 on new charges accusing him of sex trafficking minors, Epstein died in his jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019. The New York Medical Examiner ruled at the time that his death was a suicide by hanging.

Earlier this week, lawyers for Maxwell sent a letter to a federal court in the Southern District of New York stating that she is taking no position on the Justice Department’s requests to unseal transcripts after the law went on the books. However, they said that releasing documents would create problems for her attempts to get a new trial.

“Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” the letter said.