A federal judge in New York has ruled the US Department of Justice may publicly release grand jury records from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
US District Judge Richard Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the material sealed, citing the new law. In his latest ruling he emphasised that victims have the right to “have their identity and privacy protected” and said their “safety and privacy are paramount”.
Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in July 2019 and died in a New York prison cell a month later while awaiting trial. Judge Berman had denied the Justice Department’s request in August because of concerns about “possible threats to victims’ safety and privacy”, but he said the statute now requires disclosure.
The law, signed by President Donald Trump in November, requires the Justice Department to release unclassified investigative material, records and communications related to Epstein by December 19. It also permits the department to withhold files that involve active criminal investigations or raise legitimate privacy concerns.
Judge Berman is the third federal judge to rule in favour of public release under the new law. On Tuesday another judge ordered similar disclosures in the Ghislaine Maxwell case; Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence after prosecutors said she recruited and groomed girls, some as young as 14, between 1994 and 2004. A judge in Florida last week authorised unsealing of grand jury transcripts from a 2005–2007 investigation.
The Trump administration faced months of pressure over the Epstein files. Mr Trump, who had been a friend of Epstein’s, denied any wrongdoing and had promised during the 2024 campaign to make the files public. Early in the year his administration released thousands of pages of documents from the investigation, mostly flight logs, but a Justice Department memo in July said no further material would be released. That prompted bipartisan anger and a congressional resolution that led to the law Mr Trump signed in November. The family of Virginia Giuffre, a victim who died by suicide earlier this year, described the signing as “nothing short of monumental”.
The files to be released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act are distinct from documents previously released by the House Oversight Committee. Readers in Pakistan and elsewhere will watch the disclosures closely for further clarity on the investigations and the handling of evidence.
