The grand jury transcripts that the Justice Department is attempting to unseal from the investigations into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell contain testimony from only two law enforcement officers, top Justice Department officials said in a court filing late Tuesday.
The grand juries that indicted Epstein and Maxwell did not hear direct testimony from any alleged victims, Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told a judge in the Southern District of New York in their attempts to unseal the testimony. They said the testimony is just that of two witnesses, an FBI agent and a New York Police Department detective.
It is not unusual for law enforcement to be the only witnesses testifying in front of a grand jury.
The new information comes after President Trump directed Bondi and the Justice Department to move to unseal “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony,” related to the federal investigations into Epstein and Maxwell in an attempt to quiet the political storm that has ensnared the Trump administration since the Justice Department and FBI said a review of the investigation related to disgraced financier found that there was no “client list” or evidence that he blackmailed prominent figures.
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 as he faced sex trafficking charges, with investigators ruling his death a suicide. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping him recruit, groom and abuse underage girls.
This latest filing again urged the New York court to release the records, and tried to convince the judges overseeing the case that the release of more information would not harm Epstein and Maxwell’s victims.
“There is undoubtedly a clearly expressed interest from the public in Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes. Beyond that, there is abundant public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into those crimes,” Justice Department leadership wrote in its argument that the transcripts should be released, adding that its goal in unsealing the material would “provide information to the public while remaining sensitive to protecting the rights of victims.”
The Justice Department also said in the filing that they have submitted a fuller list under seal of witnesses whose accounts were conveyed in the grand jury proceedings and another list of which witnesses testified at trial to the judges, and have informed notice to all but one victim who is referenced in the grand jury transcripts of their attempts to unseal them.
“The Government has attempted to contact the remaining victim, but such efforts have been unsuccessful. In addition, the Government is in the process of providing notice to any other individuals identified in the transcripts,” the Justice Department wrote.
Last week, a federal judge in Florida denied the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury material stemming from investigations in 2005 and 2007 into Epstein in the state. That ruling only applied to transcripts of proceedings by federal grand juries that were convened in Florida, and did not apply to the transcripts in New York.
The New York federal court is bound by different circuit court precedent, meaning judges there could ultimately pave the way for that information to be released.
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