A federal judge in New York declined a request from the Department of Justice to unseal grand jury transcripts for the Jeffrey Epstein case Wednesday, the third time in recent weeks that a judge has rejected such a request from the Trump administration.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote that given the grand jury materials “do not contribute anything to public knowledge,” the public might conclude that “the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.”
The case in question stems from Epstein’s 2019 indictment on sex trafficking charges. Engelmayer noted in his 14-page opinion that only one witness testified during the grand jury proceedings: an FBI agent who worked on the case.