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By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge denied on Wednesday the Justice Department’s bid to unseal records from the grand jury that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges.
Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Richard Berman’s decision came as President Donald Trump tries to quell discontent from his conservative base of supporters over his administration’s handling of the case.
Trump, a Republican, had promised to make public Epstein-related files if reelected and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But in July, the Justice Department declined to release any more material from its investigation of the case and said a previously touted Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump’s supporters.
Evidence seen and heard by grand juries, which operate behind closed doors to prevent interference in criminal investigations, cannot be released without a judge’s approval. Trump in July instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek court approval for the release of grand jury material from Epstein’s case.
The grand jury that indicted Epstein heard from just one witness, an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Justice Department said in a court filing in July.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
His death in jail and his friendships with the wealthy and powerful sparked conspiracy theories that other prominent people were involved in his alleged crimes and that he was murdered. The New York City chief medical examiner determined that Epstein’s death was a suicide by hanging.
On Aug. 11, a different Manhattan-based judge, Paul Engelmayer, denied a similar request by the Justice Department to unseal grand jury testimony and exhibits from the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime girlfriend. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence following her 2021 conviction for recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse.
Engelmayer wrote that the public would not learn anything new from the release of materials from Maxwell’s grand jury because much of the evidence was made public at her monthlong trial four years ago. The grand jury testimony contained no evidence of others besides Epstein and Maxwell who had sexual contact with minors, Engelmayer wrote.
Maxwell had pleaded not guilty. After losing an appeal, she has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.
In July, a Florida judge rejected the administration’s request to unseal grand jury records from federal investigations there into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. Epstein served a 13-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to a state-level prostitution charge as part of a deal now widely regarded as too lenient.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis)
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