Topline
At least some grand jury materials concerning Jeffrey Epstein will be released, as a federal judge ruled Friday to make public documents from the financier’s Florida criminal case, expanding the number of Epstein-related files set to be revealed in the coming weeks—though it remains to be seen whether the grand jury materials could include any major revelations about Epstein and his sex-trafficking scheme.
Grand jury materials in the Florida criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein, pictured here, are set to be released within weeks.
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Key Facts
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith granted the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury materials in Epstein’s Florida case, paving the way for those documents to be released.
The request specifically concerns materials from grand juries who considered the government’s investigation into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, and is separate from the New York criminal case that led to Epsten’s 2019 arrest.
The Trump administration asked the court to unseal the grand jury materials in light of Congress passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law that requires most of the government’s materials on Epstein to be publicly released by Dec. 19.
While the court rejected a previous effort by the Trump administration to unseal the materials, Smith, a Trump appointee, ruled the new law “overrides” other rules that keep grand jury materials secret, meaning the documents should now be released.
It’s unclear when exactly the documents may be made public, and what exactly the materials will include.
What To Watch For
The Trump administration has made several requests to unseal grand jury materials in the wake of the Epstein Files Transparency Act becoming law, also asking for documents to be released in Epstein’s New York criminal case and associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case. No rulings on releasing materials have yet been issued in either of those prosecutions, though Maxwell’s attorneys have said they believe releasing the grand jury materials would cause “severe” harm to the socialite’s efforts to challenge her detention.