By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Manhattan on Wednesday allowed for the public release of records from a grand jury investigation into Jeffrey Epstein because of a law recently passed by Congress, the latest in a string of similar rulings.
The order by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, following a request by the Justice Department, came one day after another judge granted a similar request in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison for sex trafficking underage girls
with Epstein.
The rulings could lead to disclosure of grand jury testimony and investigative files that shed more light on Epstein's ties to rich and powerful people, including President Donald Trump.
Berman in August had denied a prior Justice Department request to unseal the grand jury materials, which are normally permanently sealed by law, citing “possible threats to victims’ safety and privacy."
But the judge in Wednesday's order said disclosure was now warranted because of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Trump signed into law last month. Berman said he would seek to ensure "the unequivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected.”
Berman oversaw the sex trafficking case brought against Epstein by federal prosecutors in 2019, which ended upon Epstein's death.
A federal judge in Florida on Friday granted the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from an earlier federal investigation of Epstein in the mid-2000s.
Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he faced federal sex trafficking charges. Epstein's death was officially ruled a suicide.
Trump, who said he ended his friendship with Epstein long before the financier’s 2019 arrest, had opposed release of the files but reversed course shortly before lawmakers voted on the legislation to require it.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence because of her conviction in 2021 on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records to the public in a searchable format by December 19.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Susan Heavey, Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
