Florida judge blocks release of Jeffrey Epstein grand jury transcripts

A Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied a request from the Trump administration to release grand jury transcripts from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg said “her hands were tied” and that she could not release the grand jury material.

“Eleventh Circuit [federal appeals court] law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied—a point the Government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote in a 12-page opinion.

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Jeffrey Epstein pictured in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sept. 8, 2004. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Trump administration has requested the judge unseal transcripts from the Florida grand jury proceedings into Epstein amid calls for transparency into the sex trafficking investigations into the deceased financier. The grand jury transcripts in Florida are related to the first federal sex trafficking investigation of Epstein.

Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution after prosecutors agreed not to bring federal charges against him. He served 13 months in prison.

The grand juries were convened in 2005 and 2007. In a separate court, a federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, for grand jury transcripts, saying there is “no compelling reason for that.” 

Lawyers for Maxwell sent a letter to the judge requesting to see the grand jury transcripts in the case in order to respond to the judge’s order regarding their position on the public release. 

Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, said the court has ordered the government to produce them by July 28th and will review the transcripts expeditiously. If the court would benefit from Maxwell’s commentary on a portion of the transcripts, he will make that portion available to Maxwell’s team, he said. 

“There is no justification for Maxwell to obtain the extraordinary relief of plenary access to the grand jury transcripts in her case,” the judge said.

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Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Wednesday’s ruling was the first in a series of attempts by President Donald Trump to release more information on the case.

Last week, Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein.”

The government has also requested a similar petition for transcripts for the 2019 and 2020 investigations into Epstein in New York. 

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche submitted a motion in Manhattan federal court urging a judge to release the transcripts from Epstein’s 2019 grand jury proceedings and those from the prosecution of Maxwell.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department and FBI issued a memorandum describing an “exhaustive review” of their Epstein investigative files. That internal review sought to determine if any evidence could justify charging additional individuals, but it concluded that “no such evidence was uncovered” against any uncharged third parties.

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Epstein, 66, was indicted by a New York grand jury in 2019 on sex trafficking charges. Just over a month later, he died by suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and the case was dismissed.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr, and Fox News’Shannon Bream, Maria Paronich and Bill Mears contributed to this report.