Judge: Epstein grand jury files can be released
by Lisa Hornung · UPIDec. 10 (UPI) -- A federal judge in New York said Wednesday that the 2019 grand jury files in the case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein can be released.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman had denied a previous request by the Department of Justice. Grand jury proceedings are normally sealed. But the Epstein Files Transparency Act -- signed into law on Nov. 19 -- now allows for the release, Berman said.
"The Court hereby grants the Government's motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected," he said in the four-page ruling.
A federal judge in Florida on Dec. 5 ordered the release of grand-jury transcripts from the investigation against Epstein from 2005 to 2007. That investigation was abandoned.
The ruling comes one day after a similar ruling in which a judge allowed the release of grand jury files in the case of Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for child sex trafficking. Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019.
Congressional Democrats recently released photos of Epstein's private island, Little St. James, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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