A Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the state’s mid-2000s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg’s 12-page opinion comes a week after the Trump administration petitioned for the release of grand jury witness testimonies from 2005 and 2007. Facing intense public pressure to release more Epstein-related files, the government said the records should be unsealed because Epstein’s death and the strong public interest constituted a “special circumstance” and that secrecy rules could no longer apply to him.
But the judge said she couldn’t legally release the records under secrecy guidelines.
“The Court’s hands are tied – a point that the Government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote in the opinion.
Trending
In addition to testimonies in Florida, where the notorious sex trafficker lived, the DOJ is also after similar records in New York where Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, were both charged with sex trafficking.
In a White House press briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she believes the DOJ’s requested interview with Maxwell “will be taking place very soon.”
Author
