Women who say they were abused by disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein raise their hands as attorney Bradley Edwards speaks at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — A second federal judge in New York on Wednesday granted a request from the U.S. Justice Department to unseal the grand jury files in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting a federal trial on sex trafficking charges and whose files have become a target of Congress and victims in recent months.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ordered the disclosure of secret grand jury materials in the government’s 2019 sex trafficking case against the hedge fund manager and friend of celebrities and politicians.
Berman ruled one day after a separate federal judge in New York has granted the government’s request to unseal grand jury materials in the 2021 federal trial of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked closely with Epstein to target minors for sex.
Berman wrote the Justice Department’s request in accordance with a novel law, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act by lawmakers, that requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release case files as part of the Epstein investigation by Dec. 19 passed with an overwhelming majority The measure was signed by President Donald Trump in mid-November.
“The law requires disclosure of Epstein grand jury materials by requiring disclosure of ‘all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials.’ Berman wrote. “‘Everything’ is crystal clear and should be understood in its ‘ordinary, common sense meaning’.”
All of the victims’ identifying information must be redacted, Berman stressed.
The order also came just days after a federal judge in Florida decided to release classified grand jury materials from the federal investigation into Epstein from 2005 to 2007. Federal investigators agreed with prosecutors to drop the investigation after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Political pressure
The FBI issued a memo in July saying the government would not release further records from the federal Epstein investigation. The refusal sparked a firestorm among lawmakers from both parties, including some from Trump’s electorate.
Months later, Trump rejected pressure to release the Epstein files, calling it a “hoax.” Less than two days before Congress was scheduled to vote on the president’s bill changed his mind and told his party to support it.
A bipartisan group of senators and members of the House of Representatives pressed Bondi in a letter dated Dec. 3 to inform them of what the Justice Department plans to release later this month.
The Law has carve-outs that allow the department to withhold information about ongoing investigations.
On November 14, the department announced that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan would launch a “new investigation” into possible ties between Epstein and former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and prominent investor Reid Hoffman.
Bondi said during a Nov. 19 press conference that “there is information, new information, additional information.”
A separate bipartisan panel on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for all Epstein investigation documents Lower store garden the Clintons and several former attorneys general for interviews.
The Justice Department claims Epstein targeted over 1,000 victims.
