Doj Goes 0-3 In Requests To Unseal Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Materials

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s effort to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits in the Jeffrey Epstein case, writing that the government itself is the "logical party" to make the Epstein files public and criticizing its motion as a “diversion” tactic.

"The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,” U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote in a 14-page opinion.

Berman’s decision is the third by a federal judge to deny nearly identical motions by the Justice Department to make public certain grand jury material in the cases of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and participating in his sex trafficking ring. She is appealing her conviction.

Berman’s opinion, however, comes as the Justice Department is being forced to disclose the Epstein files through another channel. On Friday, the department is expected to begin turning over Epstein-related records to congressional lawmakers in response to a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee.

And as Berman noted, the Justice Department’s 100,000 pages of Epstein materials, which it could release at any time and which are the target of the congressional subpoena, “dwarf” the roughly 70 pages of grand jury material it asked the federal judges to unseal.

“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein files,” the judge wrote. “The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”