A federal judge said Wednesday she lacks the authority to grant the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to investigations of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida in 2005 and 2007.

Judge Robin Rosenberg for the Southern District of Florida said that under a precedent set by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a district court cannot release grand jury material without a noted exception under a federal rule, which the administration did not identify.

“Eleventh Circuit law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied — a point that the Government concedes,” wrote Judge Rosenberg, an Obama appointee.

In 2005 Epstein, then a financier suspected of sex trafficking minors, was initially investigated in Florida for prostitution with a high school girl. He pleaded guilty to a state charge of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.

The Trump administration had asked for the Florida documents to be unsealed since Epstein has died and there is a strong public interest in the case.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said two other Epstein-related requests are “ongoing.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Judge Rosenberg noted that the administration has pending requests in the Southern District of New York, where a grand jury investigated Epstein in 2019 and 2020.

Charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex, Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019. Authorities said he died by suicide.

His longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.

Judge Paul Engelmayer in the Southern District of New York said Tuesday that he needed more time to review the matter to decide if he can unseal any records out of the New York grand jury investigations. The judge, an Obama appointee, asked for more filings by Aug. 5.

Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6, grand jury material is to remain secret unless the government can identify a noted exception.

According to the judges in the Florida and New York requests, the government has failed to properly identify an exception under the rule.

The Trump administration moved to release the grand jury documents after The Wall Street Journal published an article last week saying President Trump wrote a sexually suggestive birthday message to Epstein years ago.

Mr. Trump has denied the birthday letter and sued The Wall Street Journal, its owners and reporters for $10 billion, alleging libel.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.