Justice Division legal professionals mentioned on July 29 that the one witness at Jeffrey Epstein’s grand jury was an FBI agent.
The Division of Justice (DOJ) on the night of July 29 in a courtroom submitting mentioned that releasing grand jury transcripts associated to the case in opposition to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is within the “public interest.”
The brand new submitting, which was submitted within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of New York, got here after a choose requested the DOJ for extra data in a bid to have the recordsdata launched. Final week, a choose in Florida rejected the DOJ’s push to launch grand jury supplies in a separate bid.
Within the filings, DOJ legal professionals mentioned the one witness at Epstein’s grand jury was an FBI agent. That very same agent and a New York Metropolis Police Division detective had been the one witnesses at Maxwell’s grand jury, DOJ prosecutors additionally mentioned.
“Here, there was one witness—an FBI agent—during the Epstein grand jury proceedings,” the July 29 submitting reads. “There were two witnesses—the same FBI agent from the Epstein grand jury proceedings and a detective with the NYPD who was a Task Force Officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force—during the Maxwell grand jury proceedings.”
The submitting additionally states that most of the assertions made by Epstein’s victims who testified earlier than a grand jury have already been made public. However the division mentioned it might suggest inserting redactions on transcripts that include victim-connected or different private data.
“Many of the victims whose accounts relating to Epstein and Maxwell that were the subject of grand jury testimony testified at trial consistent with the accounts described by an FBI agent and the detective from the New York City Police Department … in the grand jury and some have also made public those factual accounts in the course of civil litigation,” the DOJ mentioned.
Maxwell’s four-week trial in 2021 included public testimony from alleged intercourse trafficking victims, associates of Epstein and Maxwell, and regulation enforcement officers. Maxwell is serving a 20-year jail sentence in Florida and is asking the Supreme Court docket to overturn her conviction. She pleaded not responsible through the trial.
Epstein pleaded responsible and was convicted in 2008 by state officers for procuring a toddler for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He served 13 months in custody with intensive work launch. He was arrested once more in July 2019 on federal intercourse trafficking costs earlier than he was discovered useless in his cell a couple of yr later.
Additionally within the courtroom papers, the DOJ’s attorneys famous the latest, intense public curiosity in releasing the Epstein recordsdata. Due to this latest phenomenon, the courtroom ought to launch the paperwork, they mentioned.
“Beyond that, there is abundant public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into those crimes,” the submitting states.
In the meantime, legal professionals for the governor mentioned Epstein, whose demise was dominated a suicide, can not submit any arguments as a result of he “has passed and therefore cannot assert a position.” Additionally they mentioned Maxwell, who was sentenced in 2022, just lately submitted a request to assessment grand jury transcripts to reply, which was rejected by a choose.
The DOJ first sought courtroom permission on July 18 to make public transcripts of the confidential testimony given by witnesses years in the past within the two circumstances, however District Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of New York requested the federal government to flesh out the authorized bases for the requests.
On July 23, District Choose Robin Rosenberg of the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of Florida denied the federal government’s petition to unseal grand jury transcripts between 2005 and 2007. The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the eleventh Circuit, she wrote on the time, didn’t allow her courtroom to grant such a request and mentioned arguments introduced by the DOJ weren’t enough to adjust to an exception to the foundations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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