Federal judge rejects DOJ request to unseal grand jury testimony in Maxwell case
Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected the DOJ’s request to unseal material related to grand jury testimony in convicted defendant Ghislaine Maxwell’s case
by Summer Lane | August 11, 2025
A federal judge has rejected a request from the Department of Justice to unseal material from the grand jury in Ghislaine Maxwell’s case.
Judge Paul Engelmeyer’s 31-page opinion on the request razed the DOJ’s reasoning for unsealing such grand jury material in Maxwell’s case, which he described as “disclosure to the public at large of the entire proceedings before the Maxwell grand jury, subject only to redactions aimed at protecting privacy.”
Maxwell is a convicted sex offender and former romantic partner of the late and infamous financier Jeffrey Epstein. She is currently serving a 20-year prison term for her crimes.
In his opinion, Judge Engelmeyer argued that the testimony from Maxwell’s grand jury was not significant enough to unseal.
“Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it. It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents,” he wrote.
Englemayer continued, “And the information it contains is already almost entirely a matter of longstanding public record, principally as a result of live testimony by percipient witnesses at the 2021 Maxwell trial.”
The judge said that pertinent information to the case has already been long disseminated to the public, therefore, unsealing further records was unnecessary.
“The Government has identified no information of consequence within the grand jury record that is not already public,” he wrote.
The opinion also noted that Maxwell “opposes disclosure because, among other reasons, her case remains on direct appeal.”
In recent weeks, Maxwell was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, due to a resurgence in public interest in the case. According to ABC, Maxwell’s interview yielded little information, yet the Trump administration was reportedly considering releasing the transcript from the conversations, nevertheless.
President Donald Trump last month appeared frustrated with the media’s fixation on Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. “Instead of talking about the great achievements we’ve had…they’re wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems…,” he remarked.
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