A federal judge in the United States has rejected a request from the Department of Justice to release transcripts from a grand jury investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.On Wednesday, US District Judge Robin Rosenberg of Florida indicated her hands were “tied” in the matter.
The unsealing of grand jury testimony is relatively rare, given the need for secrecy in such sensitive criminal investigations.
There are only narrow exceptions to federal criminal procedure that would allow for the transcripts to be released, and Judge Rosenberg indicated that those were not met by the Justice Department’s requests.
The request Judge Rosenberg received was one of three issued by the Justice Department, as it seeks to tamp down outrage from President Donald Trump’s base about the lack of recent revelations in the Epstein scandal.
Epstein scandal fuels conspiracy theories
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi played up the impending release of a trove of documents related to Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender whose entourage included high-profile figures.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York, fuelling conspiracy theories that his death might have been a cover-up orchestrated by powerful, shadowy figures.
But the nearly 200 pages Bondi and the Justice Department ultimately published failed to produce any major new revelations. It also notably lacked the “client list” that Bondi told Fox News was “sitting on my desk right now to review”. Advertisement
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