Topline
Grand jury materials from Jeffrey Epstein’s New York criminal case, which led to his 2019 arrest, will soon be released, a federal judge ruled Wednesday—meaning all grand jury materials in Epstein-related prosecutions will shortly be made public, after other judges in Florida and New York already greenlighted documents coming out in other cases.
Protesters hold up signs of Jeffrey Epstein in front of the Federal courthouse on July 8, 2019 in New York City.
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Key Facts
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ordered grand jury materials from the federal government’s prosecution of Epstein to be unsealed, which include transcripts of the grand jury proceedings and some evidence shown to the grand jury as they decided whether to indict the financier.
While Berman had rejected a previous request to make the documents public, he changed his mind in light of the newly passed law requiring the federal government to release its files on Epstein by Dec. 19.
The federal law “supersedes” rules that typically keep grand jury materials secret and hidden from the public, Berman ruled Wednesday.
The materials will be made public with redactions to protect victims’ identities, and it’s unclear when exactly they’ll be released, though it will presumably be before the Dec. 19 deadline.
Berman’s ruling comes after other federal judges in Florida and New York had already ordered grand jury materials to be released in Epstein’s separate criminal investigation in Florida and associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case, respectively.
What To Watch For
All of the government’s documents on Epstein are required to be released by Dec. 19, but there’s so far little indication when specifically any files will come out.
What Do The Grand Jury Materials Include?
Berman suggested in a previous court ruling the grand jury materials in Epstein’s case include 70 pages worth of transcripts from two days of grand jury proceedings, and evidence that includes phone call logs and a PowerPoint presentation. It’s unclear how much new information the grand jury materials could contain, and the Trump administration has suggested in previous court filings that the grand jury did not hear from any Epstein victims directly. In his August ruling that rejected the government’s first request to unseal the documents, Berman argued the information in the grand jury materials “pales in comparison” to the full Epstein files that the Trump administration already had in its possession and could release voluntarily without a court order, writing those documents “would better inform the public about the Epstein case.”
Key Background
Epstein was indicted in New York in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, with prosecutors alleging he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” and “created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit.” The financier died in prison later that year before going to trial, but his case has remained a source of public fascination, particularly due to Epstein’s association with numerous high-profile individuals. (Most of those known to associate with Epstein have never been accused of any wrongdoing.) Public interest in Epstein’s case has surged in recent months, after the Trump administration announced over the summer it would not voluntarily release any more of its Epstein files, backtracking after top DOJ officials had previously promised the documents would be made public. The outcry that resulted over that decision ultimately resulted in Congress passing legislation near-unanimously that ordered the full Epstein files