Jeffrey Epstein’s grand jury records will remain sealed, a federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday.
In a decision rejecting the DOJ’s latest attempt to unseal grand jury testimony from Epstein’s 2019 sex-trafficking case, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote that prosecutors’ focus on grand jury material “appears to be a diversion” from the broader cache of government-controlled evidence. He pointedly said that the Justice Department itself is the proper entity to make public the vast trove of files it already possesses about the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
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“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” Berman wrote in a 14-page decision.
“By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession,” Berman said, adding the grand jury testimony is merely a “hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”
Berman also underscored the rights of Epstein’s victims, writing that they had not been given sufficient notice before the DOJ filed its motions. He stressed that any release of material must involve “narrow tailoring, maximal privacy protections, and meaningful victim participation” under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
The ruling comes as President Donald Trump faces mounting pressure from his conservative base to deliver on promises from top officials in his administration to expose Epstein’s network of wealthy and powerful associates. Trump has described the public’s obsession with Epstein as a “hoax” spurred by his longtime Democratic foes and has said in recent weeks that the files “were made up” by former FBI Director James Comey.
However, the DOJ made some progress this week in its quest to get more information about Epstein into the hands of the public.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced Monday afternoon that the DOJ would begin the process of turning over Epstein-related records to the committee on Friday, after the department asked for an extension from the chairman’s Tuesday deadline. Comer described the process as a “good faith effort,” noting that DOJ officials said they needed time to ensure victims’ identities and any potential child sexual abuse material were properly redacted. An Oversight spokesperson added that the committee intends to make the records public once that review is complete, in consultation with DOJ, to avoid disrupting ongoing investigations or revealing any victims’ identities.
The cooperation between the DOJ and the committee marked a shift from July, when the DOJ declared it was finished releasing Epstein-related material after publishing a two-page memo and partial prison footage over the July 4 weekend. That move triggered bipartisan backlash and renewed calls for transparency. Lawmakers are now pressing for a full accounting of Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and the government’s handling of his detention and death, and Democrats have fought to keep Epstein in the headlines in order to damage Trump politically.
Still, Berman’s ruling highlights the limits of the court’s role in forcing disclosure. His decision follows a string of similar defeats for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s department at a time when the public has persistently called for more records releases.
Legal experts and former prosecutors largely agree with Berman’s position that the DOJ is primarily responsible for keeping unseen records concealed from the public. Other experts have said there are plenty of reasons not to release all of the Epstein-related records, including that doing so could expose victims’ identifying information or raise unsubstantiated claims against third parties who are innocent or who the DOJ has not sought to indict.
On Aug. 11, Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected the DOJ’s bid to unseal grand jury testimony from Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York criminal case, reasoning that the evidence had already been made public at her trial. And in July, a federal judge in Florida denied the administration’s request to release grand jury records from Epstein’s 2005–2007 investigations, which led to his controversial 2008 plea deal on prostitution charges.
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Officials say Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, an event that fueled widespread and unproven conspiracy theories about whether his death was staged to protect prominent figures implicated in his alleged crimes.
Maxwell, his longtime associate, is serving a 20-year sentence following her 2021 conviction for recruiting underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She was recently moved to a minimum security prison in Texas after her private interview with a top DOJ official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.