DOJ Renews Bid to Unseal Epstein Files

Maxwell’s defense previously opposed the unsealing of her case’s grand jury transcripts and other documents when the issue was raised earlier this year, and Engelmayer ultimately denied the feds’ request to make those files public.

Contrary to claims from the Justice Department, Engelmayer found that the public interest in these records was marginal at best, as they don’t reveal unknown information about powerful figures potentially involved in Maxwell and Epstein’s crimes.

“A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote in his 31-page ruling.

Witness testimony at Maxwell’s trial in 2021 placed several high-profile and rich individuals — including King Charles III’s brother Andrew and Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz — at Epstein’s private island and other properties where victims say they were forced into sex.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and then-former President Donald Trump were both named at Maxwell’s trial as notable repeat passengers on Epstein’s private jet.

Trump had long been opposed to efforts to force the release of the Epstein files, repeatedly referring to the issue as a “hoax” pushed by Democrats. But the president abruptly changed course in mid-November 2025, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that House Republicans should vote to release the files, “because we have nothing to hide.”

Prosecutors have also requested similar unsealing of materials in the Southern District of New York’s case against Epstein himself, which U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ultimately dismissed following Epstein’s jail cell suicide in federal custody a month after his July 2019 arrest.

Berman, a Bill Clinton appointee, has not yet responded to the unsealing request in the Epstein case docket.