A U.S. judge has rejected a request by the U.S. Justice Department to release transcripts from the grand jury that indicted the late financier Jeffrey Epstein on charges of sex trafficking women. Manhattan District Judge Richard Berman said the materials were of little importance compared to the vast amount of documents the government already has in the case but has not released.

The decision comes as President Donald Trump seeks to appease his conservative base, which is upset with his administration’s refusal to release the case files. Judge Berman said it would be more logical for the government to release all the collected materials directly, rather than asking the court to declassify the limited grand jury documents, which are protected by law.

“The government’s 100,000 pages of documents dwarf the roughly 70 pages of grand jury materials on Epstein,” Berman writes. “The grand jury testimony is only a small part of the rumored information about Epstein’s alleged behavior.”

Trump campaigned for a second term in 2024 on a promise to release all of the Epstein case materials, accusing Democrats of covering up the truth. However, in July, the Justice Department refused to release additional documents and said that the “controversial list” of Epstein’s clients never existed, a move that angered Trump supporters.

The grand jury records cannot be released without court approval, as the body meets behind closed doors to prevent outside interference in criminal investigations. In July, Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask the court for access to the materials.

The Justice Department announced that the grand jury that indicted Epstein had heard from only one witness, an FBI agent.

Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. He had denied any wrongdoing. His death in prison, along with his scandalous connections to the rich and powerful, has sparked conspiracy theories that he was killed to cover up other high-profile involvement. The New York City medical examiner has officially ruled the death a suicide by hanging.

On August 11, another Manhattan judge, Paul Engelmayer, also denied a similar request to release materials from the grand jury in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime partner. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of soliciting underage girls for sexual exploitation.

Judge Engelmayer said that the disclosure of the materials would not provide new information because most of the evidence had already been presented during Maxwell’s trial. He noted that the grand jury testimony did not include any information about anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell having sexual contact with minors.

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty. After losing her appeal, she asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her case.

In July, a Florida judge also rejected the administration’s request to release grand jury documents from federal investigations into Epstein from 2005 and 2007. The financier served a 13-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges in a plea deal that is now widely seen as too lenient. | BGNES