A federal judge in Florida has ordered the release of material from grand jury investigations into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2005 and 2007.
A similar bid was rejected earlier this year, but U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said he was granting the Justice Department's renewed request in light of the bill that Congress passed last month requiring the DOJ to release all of its records related to Epstein.
The newly passed Epstein Files Transparency Act calls for the release of "unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," and the specific language of the law overrides the traditional secrecy of grand jury materials, Smith wrote.
It's unclear when the materials will become public. In its motion asking for the materials to be released, the Justice Department said it "will work with the relevant United States Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information."
The grand jury investigation was conducted in West Palm Beach, near Epstein's home. Federal prosecutors were investigating whether the financier was preying on scores of underage girls in his mansion.
He eventually struck a much-scrutinized deal that allowed him to plead guilty to state solicitation charges involving a single underage victim, while also reaching a secret nonprosecution agreement with the federal government.
It's unclear how much of the material in the 2005 and 2007 investigations will be new.
The materials were available to federal prosecutors in New York who charged Epstein with sex trafficking in 2019, and much of the underlying material is believed to have emerged over the years as a result of the civil suits brought by Epstein's victims. Those cases included a suit against the Justice Department for having failed to notify them of its nonprosecution deal.
The government has similar motions pending in New York relating to the 2019 charges against Epstein and the 2020 charges against Maxwell, his accomplice. Maxwell was convicted of federal sex trafficking charges and is serving a 20-year prison term.
Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial.
The Justice Department moved to unseal the transcripts earlier this year after receiving furious public blowback after issuing an unsigned joint memo with the FBI memo declaring they had reviewed all of the evidence against Epstein and Maxwell and that no other people would be charged in connection with their trafficking of minors, and that no additional material or evidence would be released.
