Grand jury documents related to investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public after a federal judge in Florida ordered their release on Friday.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith granted a request from the Justice Department for the documents to be released months after another federal judge in Florida said she did not have the legal authority to make the grand jury information public. Smith ruled that the bill calling for the release of the Epstein files signed by Trump last month prevails over the normal rules safeguarding the secrecy of grand jury documents.
In July, U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg said that she could not grant the Justice Department’s request because “the Court’s hands are tied,” a point that the federal government conceded at the time. Rosenberg added that the Justice Department did not provide sufficient arguments for unsealing records protected by rules that “emphasize a presumption of secrecy” and protect participants from disclosing information given to a grand jury.
In Smith’s order on Friday, the judge did not set a date for the release of the documents, which stem from investigations into Epstein from 2005 and 2007 that were conducted in West Palm Beach, Florida, NBC News reported. The Justice Department first moved to unseal the grand jury documents after controversy erupted over the Trump administration’s July 6 memo, which concluded that there was no “credible evidence” to prove that Epstein kept a client list.
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The release of the Epstein grand jury documents could reveal more information to the public about the financier’s crimes and connections. The Epstein controversy has plagued the Trump administration for much of the president’s second term. Congress finally passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, and Trump signed the bill into law, giving the Justice Department 30 days to release the evidence and records it has compiled on Epstein.
The president signed off on the release of more Epstein files after months of pushing back against calls for their release and calling the focus on the Epstein files a “hoax” pushed by the legacy media and the Democratic Party. Democrats and Republicans released additional pages of documents from Epstein’s estate last month, some of which included emails from Epstein discussing Trump.
Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes, and Epstein’s victims have not made any allegations against the former president. Epstein was also close to powerful Democrats. Last month, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s ties to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Larry Summers.
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