Judge rejects unsealing Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury transcripts

A federal judge in New York on Monday rejected a request by the Justice Department to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the criminal investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted procurer for notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The Justice Department sought the unsealing of grand jury material related to Maxwell and Epstein after harsh criticism of the Trump administration’s decision not to publicly release the investigative file on Epstein.

But in his ruling Monday denying that motion, Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer quoted a 1973 legal decision which said that “the policy that ‘proceedings before a grand jury shall generally remain secret’ is ‘older than our Nation itself.’ “

Engelmayer also said that none of the arguments that the Justice Department cited for unsealing the transcripts met one of the exceptions authorizing the disclosure of grand jury materials allowed by the the federal appeals court circuit that includes New York.

The judge also suggested that the Justice Department’s request was more about public relations than about having previously unknown information about Epstein and Mawell unsealed for the first time.

“The Court’s review confirmed that unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal
new information of any consequence,” Engelmayer wrote.

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he wrote.

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