A Florida federal judge on Wednesday declined to release additional grand jury documents from the criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, marking the first roadblock in the Justice Department’s efforts to quell the public backlash over the handling of the case.
Judge Robin Rosenberg said in her ruling that because the Justice Department had requested the sealed evidence be released due to “extensive public interest” and not as part of a judicial proceeding – the standard usually applied by judges in such cases – her “hands are tied.”
Facing intensifying criticism from bipartisan lawmakers and members of the public, including some of Donald Trump most ardent supporters, the president last week called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to file court motions pursuing the release of the heretofore secret evidence.
The grand jury testimony that the department seeks to release, however, is only a small portion of the thousands of documents related to the Epstein investigation and criminal case. Many of those documents are already in Justice Department custody and may not have been presented to the jury.
Because the grand jury docket is still under seal, Rosenberg ordered that a new case should be opened as “a matter of public interest” with both the Justice Department’s request and her denial order.
The department said in a memo earlier this month that it does not plan to release any new documents in the matter. The memo also said that there was no evidence that Epstein had a list of powerful men who participated in his alleged underworld of sex trafficking and pedophilia, and that Epstein was not murdered in his New York jail cell.
Separately, a different federal judge rejected Epstein’s former accomplice’s request to view grand jury material as he weighs whether to release it publicly.
“It is black-letter law that defendants generally are not entitled to access to grand jury materials,” Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in an order on Wednesday rejecting the request.
Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell asked the judge on Tuesday to allow them access to the grand jury transcripts the Justice Department has asked to be unsealed before they officially state their position on the unsealing.
The judge said there is “no compelling necessity” for Maxwell to review the grand jury transcripts prior to submitting their position on whether they should be unsealed. He said if, once he reviews the transcripts, he believes it would benefit Maxwell’s lawyers to see portions of them he may make an excerpt of them available.
The Justice Department has until next week to provide more legal argument for why the transcripts should be released. Victims and Maxwell have until August 5 to file their positions on the unsealing.
A person close to Maxwell told CNN Tuesday that she will oppose the unsealing of the transcripts.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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