In a major development to the long-running haul in the US to release court transcripts and other files to the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a US federal judge on Wednesday allowed additional grand jury materials from the 2019 sex-trafficking case to be made public.
U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman overturned his previous decision to keep roughly 70 pages of grand jury records sealed. Berman’s reversal follows the implementation of the recently put together Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed last month.
The recently furnished act mandated that the Justice Department disclose investigative files related to Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. Berman, who oversaw Epstein’s 2019 case, clarified that the material is “not explosive,” but the move is still significant because it opens a historically airtight process to public scrutiny.
A wider wave of disclosures
The order, disclosed in a court filing on Wednesday, authorises the release of roughly 70 pages of previously sealed transcripts and exhibits from the 2019 sex-trafficking case against Epstein.
The decision from Manhattan judge Richard M. Berman comes one day after a different New York judge approved the release of records in the case against Epstein’s long time female associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
While Bernman has classified that the the documents don’t contain very revealing artifacts, the released pages could still provide an inside look into how the Justice Department investigated and prosecuted Epstein’s alleged underworld of pedophilia, though it is not yet clear how much of the evidence will be new to the public.
Impact of the judgement
While many expect this discovery to shed new light on Epstein’s network, key names are likely to remain redacted. Hailing the judgement, some members of the congress predict that the latest disclosures influence ongoing civil litigation, survivor cases, and oversight investigations. The unsealed materials may clarify prosecutorial decisions related to Epstein’s 2019 arrest and earlier failures to prosecute.
Epstein was indicted by a grand jury on sex trafficking charges in 2019. One month later, Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It was ruled a suicide.