Washington — A federal judge in New York on Wednesday declined the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury material in the case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying prosecutors had failed to demonstrate that “special circumstances” warranted the disclosure.
Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued his ruling in a 14-page decision denying the government’s motion to unseal the documents.
Berman wrote that the grand jury material in question includes the testimony of just a single witness, an FBI agent “who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.” The documents the government was seeking to unseal included roughly 70 pages of transcripts of the agent’s two presentations to the grand jury, a PowerPoint exhibit and a call log.
Berman noted that the Justice Department’s files on Epstein dwarf those stemming from the grand jury. Proceedings before grand juries are typically kept secret.
“A significant and compelling reason to reject the Government’s position in this litigation is that the Government has already undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the Epstein case and, not surprisingly, has assembled a ‘trove’ of Epstein documents, interviews, and exhibits. And, the Government committed that it would share its Epstein investigation materials with the public,” Berman wrote.
“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files. By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession,” Berman wrote, quoting a decision by another judge in New York who denied the government’s move to unseal material in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator who is serving a 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges.
“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,” he concluded.
Berman wrote that the grand jury material is “merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.” He cited “possible threats to victims’ safety and privacy” as one of the factors that weighed in favor of not releasing the documents.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Berman’s ruling.
The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most well-known accusers, who died by suicide earlier this year, said in a statement, “We applaud Judge Richard Berman’s decision not to release the grand jury testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell case. We wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is creating a diversion with its actions regarding the grand jury motion, which distracts from the vast scope of the Epstein files in the government’s possession.”
“We recognize the critical importance of protecting survivors; it is essential that we redact any information that could jeopardize their safety or privacy. Their well-being must always be our priority,” the family said. “At the same time, we demand accountability for all individuals implicated in these heinous acts. Those responsible must be held to the fullest extent of the law. We will not accept anything less than justice for Virginia and all survivors.”
In July, the Justice Department asked the judges overseeing the Maxwell and Epstein cases to release the grand jury material that formed the basis for the federal charges against them, a move that came amid uproar over the department’s review of the so-called “Epstein files” and decision not to release additional documents in the government’s possession.
Epstein was investigated by federal authorities in Florida in the 2000s, a probe that ended in a non-prosecution agreement and a guilty plea on state prostitution charges. He was arrested again on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in a Manhattan jail weeks later. Several investigations determined he died by suicide.
There has been increasing pressure on the Trump administration from Democrats and many Republicans to disclose more information about the Epstein case. The Justice Department issued findings of a review of the Epstein investigation in July, saying it had found no evidence of a “client list” or indication that Epstein blackmailed prominent figures, an announcement that spurred more questions from skeptics.
Republicans in Congress have pushed for more transparency since the Justice Department’s review. The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the department for documents related to Epstein earlier this month. The committee said Tuesday that it expects to receive documents later this week, and intends to begin releasing them pending a review to redact victims’ information.
contributed to this report.
