By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal choose in Manhattan is demanding extra info from the Justice Division as he weighs its request to unseal information from the intercourse trafficking case in opposition to Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell.
Decide Paul A. Engelmayer on Tuesday ordered the Justice Division to inform him what supplies it plans to publicly launch that had been topic to secrecy orders within the British socialite’s case.
The deadline: Midday on Wednesday.
Engelmayer’s order got here after the Justice Division on Monday requested for his permission to launch grand jury information, reveals and discovery supplies within the Maxwell case.
Engelmayer stated authorities attorneys should file a letter on the case docket describing supplies it needs to launch “in ample element to meaningfully inform victims” what it plans to make public.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of intercourse trafficking for serving to recruit a few of Epstein’s underage victims. She is serving a 20-year jail sentence.
Epstein, a millionaire cash supervisor recognized for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the tutorial elite, killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest.
Engelmayer had already notified victims and Maxwell that they’ll reply subsequent month to Justice Division’s request to launch supplies earlier than he decides whether or not to grant it.
The Justice Division stated it was searching for the courtroom’s approval to launch supplies to adjust to the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act, handed by Congress and signed into legislation final week by President Donald Trump. It requires the discharge of grand jury and discovery supplies within the case.
The request, together with an similar one for grand jury transcripts from Epstein’s case, was among the many first public indications that the Justice Division was making an attempt to adjust to the transparency act, which requires it to launch Epstein-related recordsdata in a searchable format by Dec. 19.
Engelmayer didn’t preside over the trial, however was assigned to the case after the trial choose, Alison J. Nathan, was elevated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals.
Discovery supplies topic to secrecy orders are prone to embrace sufferer interviews and different supplies that beforehand would have been solely considered by attorneys or Maxwell previous to her trial.
Engelmayer stated in an order Monday that Maxwell and victims of Maxwell and Epstein can reply by Dec. 3 to the federal government’s request to make supplies public. The federal government should reply to their filings by Dec. 10. The choose stated he’ll rule “promptly thereafter.”
Legal professionals for victims didn’t instantly reply to messages searching for remark. A spokesperson for federal prosecutors declined to remark.
Decide Richard M. Berman, who presided over the Epstein case earlier than his loss of life, issued an order on Tuesday permitting victims and Epstein’s property to reply to the Justice Division’s unsealing request by Dec. 3. He stated the federal government can reply to any submissions by Dec. 8.
Berman stated he would make his “greatest efforts to resolve this movement promptly.”
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