(New York) A federal judge who chaired the sex trafficking case against the financier Jeffrey Epstein joined two other judges to reject the government’s request to make public the transcriptions of the great jury relating to sexual abuses suffered for decades by girls and young women who have fallen into his orbit.
The decision rendered on Wednesday by judge Richard Berman in Manhattan intervened after the judge presiding over the British worldly Ghiswell, the former Epstein girlfriend, also rejected the government’s request.
Unless an appealer, Berman’s decision excludes any possibility of disclosing the testimonies of the Grand Jury, now that three judges have reached the same conclusion. A federal judge from Florida refused to disclose the documents of an investigation by the Grand Jury conducted in this country in 2005 and 2007.
These decisions constitute a collective rejection of the efforts of the Department of Justice to divert the attention of his declared refusal to disclose a massive quantity of documents in his possession and to make people understand that the still sealed courts do not contain any of the responses likely to satisfy the immense public interest in this case.
President Donald Trump had claimed the publication of transcriptions following rumors and criticisms concerning his long -standing involvement with Epstein. During his presidential campaign last year. Trump had promised to publish the files relating to Epstein, but he had been strongly criticized, including by many of his own supporters, because the few documents published by his Department of Justice lacked new revelations.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice refused to comment on Wednesday.
Berman said that “an important and convincing reason” to reject the government’s request was that the information contained in the transcriptions of the Grand Jury of Epstein “is derisory compared to information and investigation documents on Epstein in the hands of the Department of Justice”.
He wrote that the 100,000 pages of government files and documents on Epstein “eclipse the 70 pages of documents from the Grand Jury on Epstein”.
“The Government is the logical part which must disclose the public the entire Epstein files,” wrote Berman, apparently refusing to the refusal of the Department of Justice to disclose additional documents himself while simultaneously proceeding to the disclosure of the transcription of the Grand Jury.
“In comparison,” added Berman, “the request of the Grand Jury seems to be a diversion in the face of the magnitude and the reach of Epstein files in possession of the government. The testimony of the Grand Jury is only heard of the facts alleged against Jeffrey Epstein. »»
The Department of Justice had informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Grand Jury of Epstein was an agent of the FBI who, noted the judge, had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mainly hearing “.
The agent testified for two days, on June 18 and July 2, 2019. The rest of the presentation to the Grand Jury consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow broadcast during the session of June 18 and a newspaper of calls broadcast during the session of July 2, which ended with the vote of the jurors in favor of the charges of Epstein. These two documents will also remain confidential, decided Berman.
Maxwell is serving a 20 -year prison sentence after being found guilty of sex trafficking for helping Epstein sexually assaulting girls and young women. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a penitentiary camp in Texas. Epstein died in prison awaiting his trial.
The Maxwell affair has aroused increased attention from the public since the outcry aroused by the Department of Justice last month, according to which he would not publish any additional document from the survey of sexual trafficking Epstein. This decision caused the anger of online detectives, conspiracy theorists and members of Trump’s entourage, who hoped to find proof of government concealment.
Since then, Trump republican administration officials have tried to present themselves as promoters of transparency in this case, in particular by asking the courts to make public transcriptions public.
In the meantime, Maxwell was questioned in the Florida court a few weeks ago by the deputy prosecutor Todd Blanche, and the supervisory commission of the House of Representatives had also expressed his wish to speak with her. His lawyers said they would be open to an interview, but only if the commission guaranteed immunity against prosecution.
In a letter addressed to Maxwell’s lawyers, representative James Comer, president of the commission, said that it was willing to postpone the deposition until the Maxwell appeal to the Supreme Court. This call should be decided at the end of September.
Commer wrote that even if Maxwell’s testimony was “vital” for the investigation carried out by the Republicans on Epstein, the committee would not grant immunity or any question before his testimony, as his team had asked.
With Eric Tucker, journalist at the Associated Press in Washington
