Government had hoped to get files released about Jeffrey Epstein associate to quell furore that had grown over the case.
A United States judge has denied a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to unseal transcripts from a grand jury that indicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a decision issued on Monday, Judge Paul A Engelmayer said lawyers for the government failed to convince the court that extraordinary circumstances warranted the release of the grand jury testimony, which is typically delivered privately and sealed.
“[The government’s] entire premise – that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them – is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer wrote in his decision.
The DOJ in June announced it would not release any additional documents from the investigation into Epstein, causing an uproar among President Donald Trump’s base, which holds a number of conspiracy theories about the well-connected sex trafficker.
In an effort to quell the backlash, the DOJ at the order of Trump then sought to unseal transcripts both from Maxwell’s grand jury as well as Epstein’s.
In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.
www.aljazeera.com
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