Invoking New Law, Judge OKs Epstein Transcripts Release

A federal judge on Friday gave the Justice Department permission to release transcripts of a grand jury investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of underage girls in Florida—a case that ultimately ended without any federal charges being filed against the multimillionaire sex offender. US District Judge Rodney Smith said that a new law, signed last month by President Trump, compels the Justice Department, FBI, and federal prosecutors to release the vast troves of material they have amassed on Epstein that date back at least two decades. The law overrides the usual rules about grand jury secrecy, the judge said, the AP reports.

Friday's court ruling dealt with the earliest known federal inquiry. In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a mansion, began interviewing teenage girls who told of being hired to give the financier sexualized massages. The FBI later joined the investigation. Federal prosecutors in Florida prepared an indictment in 2007, but Epstein's lawyers attacked the credibility of his accusers publicly while secretly negotiating a plea bargain that would let him avoid serious jail time. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to relatively minor state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18. He served most of his 18-month sentence in a work release program that let him spend his days in his office.

The US attorney in Miami at the time, Alex Acosta, agreed not to prosecute Epstein on federal charges. After the Miami Herald reexamined the unusual plea bargain in 2018, public outrage over Epstein's light sentence led to Acosta's resignation as Trump's labor secretary. A Justice Department report in 2020 found that Acosta exercised "poor judgment" in handling the investigation, but it said he did not engage in professional misconduct. A different federal prosecutor, in New York, brought a sex trafficking indictment against Epstein in 2019, mirroring some of the same allegations. Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial. His companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of similar charges and sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison. The Justice Department has requests pending for the release of grand jury records related to the sex trafficking cases against Epstein and Maxwell in New York.