Judge Makes Big Move Before Ruling on Unsealing Maxwell Grand Jury Records
The federal judge now overseeing the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury records from Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case said in a new order Tuesday that he plans to rule “expeditiously” on the matter but requires more information before he can.
“The Court intends to resolve this motion expeditiously,” District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in a four-page order filed Tuesday. “However, the Court cannot rule on the motion without additional submissions,” he added, ABC News reported.
Engelmayer said the Justice Department’s initial motion “does not adequately address” what he called a “non-exhaustive list of factors for district courts to weigh in considering applications for disclosure” of secret grand jury material.
He ordered the DOJ to submit a supplemental brief by July 29, further explaining its justification for seeking the release of the records. That brief must also clarify whether prosecutors have already reviewed the grand jury transcripts from Maxwell’s case and whether they provided notice to the victims before filing the unsealing motion.
In addition, the order directs the government to file — under seal — an index of all Maxwell grand jury transcript materials, the full transcripts themselves, a proposed redacted version of the transcripts, and any other relevant items.
Lawyers for Maxwell also weighed in Tuesday, asking the judge to allow them to review the transcripts before taking a formal position on whether they should be released publicly.
“As counsel for Ms. Maxwell, we would similarly like to review the grand jury transcripts at issue (we have not seen them and our understanding is that they have never been provided to the defense in their entirety) in order to craft a response and set out our position to the Court,” defense attorney David Oscar Markus wrote.
He also noted that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche does not oppose letting the defense team review the materials.
Separately, Judge Engelmayer set a deadline of August 5 for any victims in the case to submit their views on whether the transcripts should be disclosed.
The case took on new urgency last week after President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to release additional Epstein-related material in response to pressure from conservatives and others demanding transparency.
Bondi confirmed Monday that Blanche will meet with Ghislaine Maxwell in the “coming days.”
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in a statement posted by Bondi on X.
Democrats were quick to criticize the move.
“DAG Blanche is now doing an end-run around the SDNY and its institutional policies by acting as a political agent of President Trump to forestall the release of the full Epstein files by tacitly floating a pardon for Maxwell in return for information that politically benefits President Trump,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.
Former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz named two former top Democratic officials on Sunday, whom he says appear in the Epstein files.
Speaking to Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, Dershowitz clarified that there was never an official “client list,” but noted that names can be uncovered through other means and that additional information is available.
“For example, there is an FBI report of interviews with alleged victims in which at least one of the victims names very important people, and the names have been redacted. I know some of the names from my investigation,” he added.
“George Mitchell, the former senator [from Maine]; Bill Richardson, the former ambassador to the UN; [former Israeli Prime Minister] Ehud Barak … were all accused. Now, whether any of these people actually did anything wrong, we don’t know, because we know there have been many, many false accusations,” Dershowitz noted further.
