By Jack Queen
NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - A Florida federal judge on Friday cleared the Justice Department to release grand jury transcripts from its sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein, which could shed light on the deceased financier's ties to rich and powerful people including President Donald Trump.
The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith to unseal the records after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a bill requiring the Attorney General to release all unclassified
files related to its investigations of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison for sex trafficking.
Trump, who said he ended his friendship with Epstein long before the financier’s 2019 arrest, had opposed the release of the files but reversed course shortly before lawmakers voted on the bill, which he signed on November 19.
The files are eagerly sought by both Trump’s political opponents and members of his own base who have pressed for greater transparency in the case.
Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he faced federal sex trafficking charges.
The scandal has been a thorn in Trump's side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters before winning reelection in 2024.
Trump has more recently changed tack and said the Epstein files are a Democratic hoax aimed at distracting from his administration’s accomplishments.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
