The Justice Department on Monday renewed its request to unseal grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking cases, arguing they should be made public under a new law requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his long-time confidante.
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US Attorney Jay Clayton cited the Epstein Files Transparency Act – passed by Congress last week and signed into law by US President Donald Trump – in court filings asking Manhattan federal Judges Richard Berman and Paul A Engelmayer to reconsider their earlier decisions to keep the material sealed.
The Justice Department interprets the transparency act “as requiring it to publish the grand jury and discovery materials in this case”, said the eight-page filings, which also bear the names of Attorney General Pam Bondi and her second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The filings are among the first public indications that the Justice Department is working to comply with the transparency act, which requires that it make Epstein-related files public in a searchable and downloadable format within 30 days of Trump signing it into law. That means no later than December 19.
The Justice Department asked Berman and Engelmayer for expedited rulings allowing the release of the grand jury materials, which contains testimony from police witnesses but no victims, arguing that the new law supersedes existing court orders and judicial policies that “would otherwise prevent public disclosure”.
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In its filing on Monday, the Justice Department said any materials made public could be partially redacted to prevent the disclosure of things such as victims’ personal identifying information.