A federal judge on Aug. 20 turned down the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to unseal materials from the grand jury that indicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, ruling that officials had failed to justify unsealing the secret documents.
Grand jury materials are typically kept private. Exceptions outlined in federal rules allow the unsealing of materials, and there are special circumstances, including public interest, that can enable the unsealing outside the exceptions.
Officials with the DOJ recently asked U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the case, to unseal the grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial, and a co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. They said that the immense public interest in the case should prompt the unsealing….