Judge Blocks Release of Ghislaine Maxwell Grand Jury Records

A U.S. judge has rejected a request to unseal grand jury records relating to Ghislaine Maxwell's indictment on sex trafficking charges, suggesting no significant new information would be revealed. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence; her associate Jeffrey Epstein died in jail awaiting trial.

A U.S. judge on Monday rejected the Justice Department's request to unseal records from the grand jury responsible for indicting Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's partner, on sex trafficking charges.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan reviewed the grand jury's witness testimony and other evidence. He stated that the government's claim that the materials would disclose meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes was "demonstrably false." "A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials the Government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new," Engelmayer wrote.

Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence following her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting his own trial and had pleaded not guilty.

(With inputs from agencies.)