The court battles are over. The political battles may be nearing a finish line, too.
Just a few minutes ago, Judge Richard Berman released the last grand-jury documents still sealed in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking ring investigations. In a four-page ruling, Berman followed two other federal judges in acknowledging Congress' authority to force the release of the information. As did the other two judges, Berman emphasized the restrictions on information relating to the victims:
In his order, Judge Richard Berman cited the law passed last month that required the DOJ to release all of its records related to Epstein, calling the act's language "clear."
"The Court hereby grants the Government's motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected," he wrote in the four-page ruling.
He explained that he agreed with attorneys for survivors of Epstein, who he said wrote to the court to say that disclosure “CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims.”
This material comes from the 2019 grand jury probe that resulted in Epstein's re-indictment, shortly before his arrest and suicide. It's not clear how much that will differ from the grand jury material in the 2007 probe, released last week by the federal court in Florida. The charges that resulted from the 2019 grand jury related to the earlier crimes that the federal government had declined to charge at the time, a point that Epstein's attorneys were attempting to litigate when Epstein killed himself in jail. It's certainly possible that new testimony had emerged from victims who may have declined to talk in 2007.
That certainly wasn't the case in the Ghisaine Maxwell files released yesterday. Judge Paul Engelmayer warned everyone in his ruling that the material would be a big nothingburger for pundits and the prurient:
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 materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes. They do not reveal new venues at which their crimes occurred. They do not reveal new sources of their wealth. They do not explore the circumstances of Epstein’s death. They do not reveal the path of the Government’s investigation. . . .
A “public official,” “lawmaker,” “pundit,” or “ordinary citizen” “deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Motion to Unseal at 3, and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled.
Will this transcript and set of materials prove more substantive? It may be a while before we find out, Tara Palmeri warned yesterday. Even though the DoJ has tried for months to pry this information out from under seal, Palmeri reports that they are unprepared to publish it on time as directed by Congress:
Former federal prosecutor Kristy Greenberg told me bluntly: “There’s no way that all the Epstein files that should be released will be released by December 19th.”
And now, the DOJ’s own court filing — a December 8 letter to Judges Berman and Engelmayer — confirms exactly that. You can read it here.
In that letter, the Department admitted that it’s still scrambling to figure out what its redaction policies are, who the victims are, and what materials actually fall under the law. ... This is not a department ready to release anything. This is a department trying to construct an airplane in midair.
If so, it just reflects the political preparation of both major parties, who took up the Epstein cudgel in hopes of using it to smear each other. Engelmayer's cynicism applies equally, and probably will end up being vindicated in the end.
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