Epstein files latest: Grand jury transcript request denied

DOJ to begin sharing Epstein files with Congress on Friday

The Trump administration will begin handing over documents related to Jeffrey Epstein's case to the House Oversight Committee on Friday, Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said.

On Wednesday, a New York federal judge denied the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein. 

What they're saying:

Berman said the information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts "pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice."

He wrote that the government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials "dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials."

"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 on its own while simultaneously moving to unseal grand jury transcripts.

"By comparison," Berman added, "the instant grand jury motion 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."

FILE - Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA on 9/8/04. Epstein is connected with several prominent people including politicians, actors and academics. Epstein was convicted of having sex with an underaged woman. (Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis

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RELATED: Epstein files latest: DOJ will give documents to Congress

70-page transcript

Dig deeper:

The Justice Department had informed 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 entire transcript was 70 pages. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow shown during the June 18 session and a call log shown during the July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. Both of those will also remain sealed, Berman ruled.

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.

Ghislaine Maxwell transcripts won't be released

The backstory:

Transcripts of grand jury testimony that led to sex-trafficking charges against Epstein’s longtime confidante Maxwell shouldn’t be released, a judge ruled Monday.

The judge wrote in a stinging decision suggesting the Trump administration’s real motive for wanting them unsealed was to fool the public with an "illusion" of transparency.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer wrote that after privately reviewing the grand jury transcripts, anyone familiar with the evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial would "learn next to nothing new" and "would come away feeling disappointed and misled."