Trump wants the Epstein grand jury transcripts released. That’s a tiny portion of the files his administration has on the case
The Trump administration has asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein’s case. But that’s just a fraction of the so-called “Epstein files” that have torn the MAGA movement’s world wide open.
Public pressure has mounted in the days since the Justice Department announced an anticlimactic end to the Epstein saga, stating there was no evidence to support a “client list” of associates, whom some claim Epstein blackmailed, over their alleged involvement in his trafficking scheme.
For days, the White House has been consumed by the Epstein uproar with conservative commentators and prominent Republicans alike demanding increased transparency around the late disgraced financier’s case.
The president, who campaigned on releasing the so-called “Epstein files”, alleged they were a “hoax” made up by Democrats.
Trump then said on Tuesday it was up to his Attorney General Pam Bondi whether to release “credible” information from Epstein-related materials. On Thursday he ordered Bondi to seek a court’s permission to release “pertinent” grand jury testimony from the Epstein probe.
But the grand jury testimony is only a small portion of the thousands of documents related to the Epstein investigation and criminal case. Many documents are already held by the Justice Department may not have been presented to the grand jury.
In motions filed Friday evening in the Southern District of New York, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asked the court to release transcripts associated with the grand jury indictments of Epstein and Maxwell.
Two months after a grand jury returned Epstein’s indictment in July 2019, the financier died by suicide while awaiting trial over the sex trafficking of minors.
The motion asks a judge to lift any protective orders and release the grand jury transcripts “as a matter of public interest.”
“Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter. Indeed, other jurists have released grand jury transcripts after concluding that Epstein’s case qualifies as a matter of public concern,” the filing states.
The Justice Department will work with the SDNY to “make appropriate redactions of victim-related information and other personal identifying information prior to releasing the transcripts,” the motion reads.
The DOJ told the court it recently conducted a review in the Epstein case to “determine whether evidence existed that could predicate an investigation into uncharged third parties.” But no evidence was uncovered.
Some expected a subsequent tranche of documents after the DOJ released “Phase 1” of the Epstein files in February. The release of the transcripts is unlikely to be that.
A grand jury is a “group of people selected to sit on a jury that decide whether the prosecutor’s evidence provides probable cause to issue an indictment,” according to Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute. The group is provided with evidence and witness testimony to determine whether they justify an indictment.
