DOJ Renews Bid to Unseal Epstein Files

In the wake of new legislation passed by Congress requiring the release of all of the records the Justice Department possesses relating to late financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Manhattan U.S. attorney asked a federal judge on Monday to clear the way to unseal grand jury materials from the district’s investigation into Epstein’s longtime abettor Ghislaine Maxwell.

Expressly at the direction of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office asked the New York federal judge presiding over Maxwell’s case to release a tranche of documents from the criminal investigation that led to her 2021 conviction on charges directly tied to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and a 20-year prison sentence.

Citing the Epstein Files Transparency Act that Congress nearly unanimously passed last week — aimed at shining a spotlight on the federal government’s investigation into Epstein — in a letter to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, federal prosecutors requested an expedited ruling to unseal the grand jury transcripts and exhibits.

“The act expressly references this specific investigation, and there can be no question that Congress was aware that this investigation included a grand jury investigation," prosecutors wrote.

The letter, signed by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, asks Engelmayer to modify any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure by the government of materials the disclosure of which is required by the act.

“To the extent permitted by the act, the Department of Justice will work with the relevant United States Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information,” the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office wrote in the motion.

Maxwell’s defense previously opposed the unsealing of her case’s grand jury transcripts and other documents when the issue was raised earlier this year, and Engelmayer ultimately denied the feds’ request to make those files public.

Contrary to claims from the Justice Department, Engelmayer found that the public interest in these records was marginal at best, as they don’t reveal unknown information about powerful figures potentially involved in Maxwell and Epstein’s crimes.

“A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote in his 31-page ruling.

On Monday however, Engelmayer responded to the renewed unsealing request by setting a briefing schedule, saying he was “mindful of the act’s requirement that the attorney general disclose responsive materials within 30 days of its enactment.”

He asked Maxwell to respond by Dec. 3, 2025, setting out her position on the government’s proposed disclosures and modification of the protective order.

He also asked prosecutors to gather input from Epstein and Maxwell’s victims and have those materials sent to him by Dec. 4, 2025.

Engelmayer asked the government to respond to those submissions by Dec. 10, 2025, and pledged to “rule promptly thereafter” on the motion.

Witness testimony at Maxwell’s trial in 2021 placed several high-profile and rich individuals — including King Charles III’s brother Andrew and Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz — at Epstein’s private island and other properties where victims say they were forced into sex.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and then-former President Donald Trump were both named at Maxwell’s trial as notable repeat passengers on Epstein’s private jet.

Trump had long been opposed to efforts to force the release of the Epstein files, repeatedly referring to the issue as a “hoax” pushed by Democrats. But the president abruptly changed course in mid-November 2025, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that House Republicans should vote to release the files, “because we have nothing to hide.”

Prosecutors have also requested similar unsealing of materials in the Southern District of New York’s case against Epstein himself, which U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ultimately dismissed following Epstein’s jail cell suicide in federal custody a month after his July 2019 arrest.

Berman, a Bill Clinton appointee, has not yet responded to the unsealing request in the Epstein case docket.