Judge denies Justice Department request to unseal Epstein grand jury
transcripts
[August 21, 2025]
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and ERIC TUCKER
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump
administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey
Epstein ’s sex trafficking case, joining two other judges who declined
to release similar records from investigations into the late financier's
sexual abuse of young women and girls.
Judge Richard Berman, who presided over the 2019 case, ruled a week
after another Manhattan federal judge turned down the government’s
request to release transcripts from the grand jury that indicted
Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Barring reversal on appeal, Berman’s decision appears to foreclose the
possibility of federal courts releasing Epstein-related grand jury
testimony. A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury
documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007, though some
material from a state case against Epstein was made public last year.
The rulings were a resounding repudiation of the Justice Department's
effort to unlock the records, a move the Republican administration
undertook amid a fierce backlash over its refusal to release a massive
trove of documents in its possession.
Berman and the judge in Maxwell's case, Paul A. Engelmayer, made clear
in their rulings that the grand jury transcripts contain none of the
answers likely to satisfy the immense public interest in the case.
President Donald Trump had called for the release of transcripts amid
rumors and criticism about his long-ago involvement with Epstein. During
last year's presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files
related to Epstein, but he was met with criticism — including from many
of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his
Justice Department lacked new revelations.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.
Each of the judges who declined to release transcripts cited
longstanding grand jury secrecy rules and concluded that the government
did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that
could justify making them public. Berman said it was the first time
since 1973 that the government sought to unseal grand jury records for
“special circumstances.”
The judges also noted that the Justice Department has voluminous records
related to Epstein that aren't covered by grand jury secrecy rules.
Berman wrote that the scant information contained in 70 pages of Epstein
grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative
information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,"
which he said totals around 100,000 pages.
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“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive
disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” Berman wrote in an
apparent reference to the Justice Department’s refusal to release
additional records. He said the request to release grand jury
records "appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of
the Epstein files in the Government’s possession. The grand jury
testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged
conduct.”
The only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury in 2019
was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, "had no direct knowledge of
the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.” The
rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint
slideshow and a call log.
Last year, a judge in Florida unsealed around 150 pages of
transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to Epstein's
indictment on state charges there in 2006.
Maxwell, a British socialite and publishing heir, is serving a
20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking
charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. She was
recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in
Texas. Epstein's 2019 death in jail awaiting trial was ruled a
suicide.
Maxwell’s case has attracted heightened public attention amid an
outcry by online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of
Trump's base after the Justice Department said last month that it
would not release any more documents from the Epstein sex
trafficking investigation.
Since then, officials in Trump's Republican administration have cast
themselves as promoting transparency, including by requesting the
unsealing of grand jury transcripts.
Meanwhile, Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse weeks ago
by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The House Oversight
Committee also said it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers
said they would be open to an interview only if the panel were to
ensure immunity from prosecution.
In a letter to Maxwell’s lawyers, Rep. James Comer, the committee
chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition
until after the resolution of Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September.
Comer wrote that while Maxwell’s testimony was “vital” to the
Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not
provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony.
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