The Justice Department has formally asked New York federal judges to unseal long-protected grand jury documents tied to the investigations of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The request follows the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week after overwhelming congressional approval. The new legislation requires the release of the records within 30 days.
Epstein was indicted in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls. One month later, he was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell before he could stand trial.
Maxwell, accused of helping Epstein recruit and abuse minors, was convicted in 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year sentence, per the Daily Mail.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi sought access to the grand jury files but was denied on the grounds of long-standing secrecy rules. Now, she argues that the newly passed transparency law overrides those legal barriers.
DOJ Cites Congressional Intent to Override Secrecy
Bondi wrote to U.S. District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer, who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases, asserting that the act was designed to loosen the restrictions surrounding grand jury evidence.
Her filing notes that the law still allows limited redactions for material that could compromise an active federal investigation or prosecution. However, the motion does not address the newly launched probes into Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman ordered by Trump shortly after the bill passed.
Jeffrey Epstein. Credit: Patrick McMullan / Getty Images.
Political Tensions Surrounding the Epstein Files
The push to unseal the documents comes amid escalating political disputes. GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the bill’s architects, has accused the administration of using the new investigations as a distraction to justify withholding information.
Trump has repeatedly described the Epstein files as a political hoax, despite campaigning on promises of full transparency.
The issue sparked a major rift between Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his most prominent allies, who publicly accused the administration of stalling the release of the records. The controversy intensified when the House Oversight Committee published a batch of Epstein emails that included multiple references to Trump.
Epstein’s Past Connections to Trump
Epstein, a New York financier with homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, was socially connected to Trump from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. Trump banned him from Mar-a-Lago around 2007, citing inappropriate behavior toward young female staff members. Epstein later pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008.
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year and was one of Epstein’s most well-known accusers, wrote in her memoir that she was never aware of allegations involving Trump.
Judges Previously Rejected Requests for Release
Judge Berman previously denied the Trump administration’s attempt to unseal Epstein-related grand jury files, arguing that the material represented only a small portion of the government’s much larger investigative archive.
He noted that the grand jury documents amounted to roughly 70 pages, compared to the Justice Department’s estimated 100,000 pages of evidence.
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Trump and Epstein have been photographed together multiple times. Credit: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images.
Two additional judges also declined earlier requests to release grand jury material related to Epstein’s decades-long abuse.
According to court records, the only witness who testified before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who had no direct knowledge of the events and relied largely on secondhand information. The remainder of the proceedings consisted of a PowerPoint presentation and phone-record evidence. The grand jury returned an indictment on July 2, 2019.
Epstein was arrested four days later and died in custody on August 10, 2019, in what officials have ruled a suicide.