New York: Secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case can be made public, a judge ruled on Wednesday, joining two other judges in granting the Justice Department’s requests to unseal material from investigations into the late financier’s sexual abuse.

US District Judge Richard M Berman reversed his earlier decision to keep the material confidential, citing a new law that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. The judge had previously cautioned that the approximately 70 pages of grand jury materials slated for release are not particularly revelatory.

What other courts have done

On Tuesday, a different Manhattan federal judge ordered the release of records from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking case. Last week, a judge in Florida approved the unsealing of transcripts from an abandoned Epstein federal grand jury investigation in the 2000s.

The Justice Department requested the lifting of secrecy orders after the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Donald Trump last month, created a narrow exception to rules that usually keep grand jury proceedings confidential.

The law requires that the Justice Department disclose Epstein-related records to the public by December 19.

Why the files matter

Questions about the government’s Epstein files have dominated the first year of Trump’s second term, with pressure on the Republican intensifying after he failed to fulfil a campaign promise to release the files. His administration released some material, most of which was already public, disappointing critics and some allies.

Epstein, a millionaire money manager who socialised with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, died by suicide in jail a month after his 2019 arrest. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

What the grand jury heard

In court filings, the Justice Department informed Judge Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury 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 agent testified over two days, on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log. The July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein, and other related materials will remain sealed, Berman ruled.

AP inputs