CNN
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The Trump administration’s chaotic handling of the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files continued Friday as the Justice Department asked a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony made behind closed doors against the convicted sex offender.
In its filing, the department justified releasing the heretofore secret evidence as “a matter of public interest.”
“The public’s interest in the Epstein matter has remained. Given this longstanding and legitimate interest, the government now moves to unseal grand jury transcripts associated with Epstein,” the filing reads. The department also filed a similar motion in the case against Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
President Donald Trump called for and Attorney General Pamela Bondi agreed to file the motion Thursday night, as the administration faced increasing backlash over its botched handling of the Epstein files. Bondi had long promised to release as many documents in the Justice Department’s possession as possible, but walked that promise back in a memo last week announcing that there is no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” or was murdered.
The department wrote that the purpose of the recent review was to “determine whether evidence existed that could predicate an investigation into uncharged third parties.”
“As the Memorandum concluded, no such evidence was uncovered during the review,” it says in the filing.
The administration’s new push came after a report about a birthday letter to Epstein in 2003 that bore Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman. Trump has denied the story and is suing the Wall Street Journal’s parent company.
“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday night. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
The filing, signed only by Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, said that the testimony made before a grand jury about Epstein’s crimes should be released because “Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter.”
The decision to move forward with releasing the grand jury now lies with a federal judge. Judge Richard M. Berman in Manhattan, oversaw the criminal case against Epstein before his death, ruled a suicide, in 2019.
It’s unclear how long it will take for anything to be made public.
Before making and ruling on the matter, the judge must consult with the victims and any uncharged person discussed in the testimony, as their identities are protected under federal law. Depending on what timeline is set, that process could take weeks, months, or longer to unfold.
The grand jury testimony, however, is only a small portion of the thousands of documents related to the Epstein investigation and criminal case – many of which are already in Justice Department custody and may not have been presented to the jury.
CNN previously reported that as part of the search for materials related to Epstein, the FBI conducted a round-the-clock mission to reviewing and redact documents and other evidence that hadn’t been made public. FBI and Justice officials soon realized that, with the required redactions, they would be releasing thousands of pages that were blacked out.
Putting any additional release in the hands of a federal judge could be a workaround to that problem because justice officials would no longer be responsible for the decision, or declination, to do so.
Judges have already released hundreds of documents in the Epstein saga. The majority of those held back were deemed unsuitable to be released because of federal laws that protects the privacy of Epstein victims and people not charged with crimes.
This story has been updated with additional information.
