Second federal judge in New York orders release of Epstein files

Judges emphasised protecting victims' privacy by redacting personal information from the documents. Photo / Getty Images

A second federal district judge in New York has ordered the release of grand jury material and other investigative records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, ruling that public access is required by a law Congress passed last month.

The order from US District Judge Richard M. Berman covers material that was gathered in connection with the 2019 federal indictment of Epstein on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein died in custody that August, a month after his indictment was unsealed and before his case could go to trial. His death was ruled a suicide.

Berman wrote in his four-page ruling that the new law “unequivocally intends to make public the Epstein grand jury materials and discovery materials” that were previously sealed by a protective order. The judge in his decision lifted that order to enable the public release of investigative records.

On Tuesday, another federal judge, Paul Engelmayer, made a similar ruling covering documents involved in the prosecution of Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. A judge in Florida last week also issued a similar ruling related to an earlier Epstein investigation from 2005 and 2007.

Top Justice Department officials recently asked Berman and Engelmayer for expedited rulings to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Congress passed last month. The law mandates the public release of investigative documents by December 19, a month after it was enacted.

Maxwell, a longtime romantic partner to Epstein, was convicted in federal court in Manhattan in late 2021 for her role in helping Epstein in his sex trafficking of girls. Prosecutors argued that Maxwell was Epstein’s top enabler, finding young, vulnerable victims. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Hundreds of thousands of pages of records were generated as part of Maxwell’s case and handed over to the defence – documents that are now slated for release under the new law.

The law firm of David Boies, a prominent New York litigator, has represented several Epstein accusers, including Annie Farmer, who advocated for the transparency law and testified against Maxwell at trial.

“This is an important, and long delayed, step in revealing the scope, scale, and participants of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise,” Boies said, referring to Engelmayer’s ruling.

Both judges stressed the need to protect the privacy of Epstein’s victims, ordering the government to redact personal information that might reveal victims’ identities.

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