A federal judge on Monday denied the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls.

The ruling comes as President Trump tries to subdue criticism and conspiracy theories from his supporters about Mr. Epstein and his circle by pushing for the transcripts’ disclosure.

Unsealing the transcripts would mean the court was applying a “special circumstances” exception to the secrecy of grand juries, wrote the judge supervising Ms. Maxwell’s case, Paul A. Engelmayer.

Permitting such an exception “casually or promiscuously” would erode confidence in people called to testify before future grand juries, Judge Engelmayer wrote.

“This factor weighs heavily against unsealing,” the judge wrote.

This is a developing story and will be updated.