DOJ seeks edited material for Epstein, Maxwell’s Great Juice
The Justice Department urged Manhattan federal court to release the compiled large jury file of Jeffrey Epstein and Gislaine Maxwell cases.
The judge denied a bid for Justice Department records from a large ju court that charged deceased financial operator Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges.
The August 20 decision by Manhattan-based US District Judge Richard Berman came as President Donald Trump tried to quell his dissatisfaction from his conservative supporters’ bases over his administration’s decision not to publish the file of the case.
The judge wrote that it is more logical for the government to directly release the vast amount of information it has collected from an investigation into Epstein, rather than petitioning the court to release more limited large ju trial materials protected by the law.
“The government’s 100,000-page Epstein files and materials warn 70 pages of the materials of the Epstein Grand Juice,” writes Berman. “The testimony of the Great Jue Court is merely a snippet of hearsay in the conduct of Jeffrey Epstein’s suspect.”
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Republican Trump ran a second-term campaign in 2024, pledging to create official Epstein-related files, accusing Democrats of hiding the truth. However, in July, the Justice Department refused to release any further material from the investigation into the case, angering Trump supporters, saying there was no previously promoted Epstein client list.
Evidence seen and heard by a large ju judge who operates closed doors to prevent interference in criminal investigations cannot be released without the approval of the judge.
In July, Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondy to seek court approval for the release of large ju trial materials from the Epstein case.
The large ju court that indicted Epstein heard from one witness, one witness, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department said in a court application in July.
Epstein died of suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
His death in prison and his friendship with wealthy and powerful people sparked conspiracy theories that other prominent people were involved in his suspicious crimes and that he was murdered. New York City’s chief medical inspector determined Epstein’s death was a suicide, hanging.
On August 11, another Manhattan-based judge, Paul Engelmeyer, rejected a similar request from the Justice Department, sealed off the testimony of the Great Juice Court, and displayed the case of Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, Gislaine Maxwell. Maxwell serves a 20-year sentence following a 20-year conviction following a 2021 conviction for recruiting minor girls for Epstein’s abuse.
Engelmeyer writes that the public doesn’t learn anything from the release of material from Maxwell’s big ju judge, as much of the evidence was made public at a one-month trial four years ago. Engelmayer said his testimony at the Great Jue did not include any other evidence other than Epstein and Maxwell having sexual contact with minors.
Maxwell had pleaded not guilty. After losing the appeal, she asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider her case.
In July, a Florida judge rejected the administration’s request to seal off the records of major ju judges from federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in 2008 after pleading guilty to toilet prostitution.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Editing by Noeleen Walder, Daniel Wallis, and David Gregorio)
