Judge denies release of Maxwell grand jury transcripts

Julie K. Brown, Miami Herald on Aug 11, 2025

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With a stern rebuke, a federal judge on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts involving convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, saying “there is no ‘there’ there.”

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said there was nothing in the grand jury files to justify unsealing them, calling the government’s arguments for unsealing “disingenuous” because it would not reveal any new information about the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell.

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion – aimed not at full disclosure but at an illusion of such,” Engelmayer wrote.

He further noted that the public’s interest would not be served by violating grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant, Maxwell, is still alive and has a right to due process. After reviewing the testimony, the judge also concluded that most, if not all, of the information was already part of the public record.

“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,” Engelmayer wrote.

Maxwell, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking a minor and other related charges. She has appealed her conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is reviewing her petition.

Legal experts have long said that the grand jury records would uncover nothing new, as grand jury records typically contain limited information.

“The DOJ was trying to create the appearance of transparency but conspicuously focused on a tiny portion of the files which they do not have control over,” said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.

“If DOJ wanted to make public the non-grand jury portions of their files, they could do that on their own accord unilaterally.”

Trump, facing criticism from his own supporters, last month announced on his Truth Social account that he had requested that the Justice Department release the grand jury records, subject to court approval.

The DOJ has also sought the release of the grand jury transcripts and exhibits from cases involving Epstein in both Florida and New York. A federal judge last month rejected the DOJ’s request for the Florida records. But U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the request to unseal the Epstein grand jury testimony in New York, has not yet ruled on the DOJ’s request.

Several victims filed letters with the federal court supporting the release of the material, but objecting to the way the Epstein case is being used, in their view, for political purposes, and wrote that they believe the Trump administration has disregarded the best interest of victims.

In his decision Engelmayer noted that the victims’ support of releasing the material was premised on the “understandable, but mistaken belief” that the transcripts would reveal new information.

Maxwell met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for nine hours over two days in July. She has since been transferred from a maximum security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a minimum-security facility in Texas where most of the inmates are serving time for white-collar or non-violent crimes.

Maxwell’s designation as a sex offender would make her ineligible for such a transfer, but the federal Bureau of Prisons has not explained how and why she obtained an exemption from BOP’s policies.

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