A federal judge in Florida has ordered the release of material from grand jury investigations into sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and 2007.
Those investigations ultimately led to the so-called sweetheart deal that saw Epstein plead guilty to state charges of felony solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors to engage in prostitution involving a single victim along with a non-prosecution agreement from federal prosecutors.
The deal was negotiated by then US Attorney Alex Acosta, who later served as Secretary of Labor in President Donald J. Trump’s first term in office, and allowed Epstein to serve just 13 months in state prison. During that time, he was allowed out for up to 12 hours a day on work release.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Earlier this year, a different judge denied a request to release the grand jury material, but US District Judge Rodney Smith reversed that decision in light of the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, which required the Department of Justice to release all its records relating to Epstein, NBC News reported.
It’s not clear when the materials will be released nor how much of it will be new. Prosecutors who charged Epstein in 2019 had access to the material, and much of it has emerged in civil lawsuits brought by Epstein’s victims.
The Epstein Transparency Act requires that the DOJ release materials related to Epstein and his former girlfriend and fellow trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison after her conviction in 2022. The DOJ has asked judges in New York to release files related to Epstein’s 2019 charges and Maxwell’s 2020 charges, and those cases are pending.
In its motion to have the files released, the DOJ said it would “work with the relevant United States Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”
The DOJ moved to have the transcripts unsealed earlier this year after it issued a memo saying all the material had been reviewed and no further charges would be filed nor would any material be released. The memo caused a furious reaction from the public in general as well as many elected officials and victims of Epstein and Maxwell.
That memo ultimately led to the Transparency Act, which was passed overwhelmingly in the House and Senate. The president, who had spent months fighting against releasing any further files, flipped in the final days of the fight and called for lawmakers to pass the bill. He then signed it, but only after pushing the DOJ to open an investigation into a handful of Democrats believed named in the files.
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