Judge Denies Request to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcripts, Ghislaine Maxwell Subpoenaed

A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday denied a request from the Trump administration to unseal grand jury transcripts from an investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Separately, the House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long-time associate, in an attempt to obtain further details about his high-profile clients.

Chairman James Comer of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued the subpoena Wednesday to Maxwell for a deposition at a federal correctional institution in Tallahassee, Florida, on August 11. Representative Tim Burchett made the motion for Comer to subpoena Maxwell, who was convicted for her role helping Epstein solicit minors for prostitution, in a Tuesday House subcommittee hearing. The motion was adopted by voice vote.

"The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein's cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny," Comer wrote in a statement Wednesday.

Both actions come amid political pressure on President Donald Trump to release further information regarding the disgraced financier, including his alleged client list. The administration's handling of the case has faced increased scrutiny in recent days after the Wall Street Journal published a bawdy letter Trump sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday and subsequently broke news that the Justice Department told the president in May his name appears in the Epstein files.

Being mentioned in the files is not necessarily a sign of wrongdoing. The president has filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, calling the report defamatory. The White House also said Wednesday the story alleging that Trump's name appears in the files is fake.

The Justice Department petitioned the court last week to release the transcripts from Southern District of Florida grand jury investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007, and requested to transfer the petition to the Southern District of New York, where Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial for federal sex-trafficking charges.

United States District Judge Robin Rosenberg denied the request in a 12-page opinion Wednesday, saying she could not legally release the transcripts under the guidelines that govern grand jury secrecy set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit because the government had not requested the grand jury's findings for use in a judicial proceeding. She further stated that the legal standard for transfer of the petition to another district was not met in this case.

The government had justified its request saying the guidelines supporting grand jury secrecy no longer apply to the investigation because of Epstein’s death. It further argued “the public’s strong interest in the historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein constitutes a special circumstance justifying public discourse.”

“Public officials, lawmakers, pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, wrote in a motion to the court seeking to unseal the transcripts. “The time for the public to guess what they contain should end.”

The administration has separately pushed to release transcripts from 2019 and 2020 Southern District of New York federal grand jury investigations into Epstein and transcripts from a grand jury investigation into Maxwell.

Bondi initially promised to release documents relating to Epstein but later released a joint memo with the FBI saying a thorough investigation had revealed no client list and no evidence that would lead to an investigation of uncharged third parties. No additional documents merited public disclosure, according to the memo.