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Ghislaine Maxwell case: Judge grants request to unseal case records

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Published  December 9, 2025 8:40am CST
Crime and Public Safety
FOX Local
article

FILE - Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Joe

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The Brief

    • A federal judge says the Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell.
    • The Justice Department in November asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s cases.
    • Last week, a judge in Florida granted the department’s request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein in the 2000s.

A federal judge is granting the Justice Department’s request to publicly release the investigative records from Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case. 

The backstory:

Maxwell is the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein and was convicted of sex trafficking charges in December 2012. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. 

In November, the Justice Department asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Maxwell and Epstein’s cases, along with investigative materials that could amount to hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

Timeline:

The ruling, in the wake of the passage last month of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means the records could be made public within 10 days. 

The law requires the Justice Department provide Epstein-related records to the public in a searchable format by Dec. 19.

Epstein grand jury files

Meanwhile:

Last week, a judge in Florida granted the department’s request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein in the 2000s.

READ MORE: Epstein files: Judge grants DOJ request to unseal grand jury records

Also:

A request to release records from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case is still pending.

The backstory:

Epstein, a financier, was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges, a month before he was found dead in a federal jail cell. The death was ruled a suicide.

The Source: Information in this article was taken from a ruling by New York Judge Paul A. Engelmayer on Dec. 9, 2025, as reported by The Associated Press. Background information was taken from previous FOX Television Station reporting and from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Detroit.

Crime and Public SafetyU.S.