The investigation in 2019 led to Epstein’s arrest before he was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in August of that year.
A federal judge in New York on Wednesday ordered the release of grand jury materials of the 2019 federal investigation and case against deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, weeks after the passage of a congressional measure requiring the disclosure of those documents.
Federal judges in two other cases have already ordered the unsealing of materials related to Ghislaine Maxwell, a former accused Epstein accomplice, and an earlier case against Epstein that was brought against him in Florida in the mid-2000s.
The 2019 investigation led to sex trafficking charges against Epstein before he was arrested and detained in a New York City jail. In August, 2019, he was found dead in his cell, with the New York City Medical Examiner’s office ruling it a suicide by hanging.
In his Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said that the November passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all records related to Epstein, Maxwell, and other individuals who may have been connected to the cases.
“The Court hereby grants the Government’s motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected,” the judge wrote in a four-page ruling.
Berman added that he agreed with lawyers of Epstein’s victims who had submitted court documents. The disclosure of the grand jury materials, he wrote, should not “come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims.”
The judge also cited text from the Epstein transparency measure, signed into law by President Donald Trump in November, regarding the type of personal information and material that should be kept from the public eye. That includes the victims’ medical files and personal information, he said.
Wednesday’s ruling was issued before a Dec. 19 deadline that was set under the Epstein Act. A judge in Florida earlier this month issued a ruling to unseal and release the 2005 and 2007 grand jury materials related to a sex trafficking case against Epstein that led to him pleading guilty on lesser charges in 2008, while a separate New York judge ruled in favor of unsealing materials pertaining to Maxwell.
