NEW YORK CITY, New York: The Department of Justice received approval from a federal judge to publicly release grand jury transcripts and other material from Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking case.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer cited a new law that requires the government to open its files on Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime confidant. However, he asked people not to expect too much new information from them.

The Justice Department had made requests to Engelmayer and other judges before the transparency law was passed to unseal Epstein's records. However, these requests were rejected.

They stated that the materials "do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor."
"They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein's or Maxwell's," Engelmayer wrote. "They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein's or Maxwell's crimes."

On December 9, in Manhattan, Engelmayer ruled after the Justice Department had asked judges, in the wake of the law's passage last month, to lift secrecy orders in Maxwell's and Epstein's cases that had kept some records under wraps. A request to unseal records from Epstein's 2019 sex trafficking case is still pending.

Engelmayer is the second judge to act after the Epstein Files Transparency Act created a narrow exception to rules that usually keep grand jury proceedings secret. Last week, a Florida federal judge ordered the release of transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein in the 2000s.

President Donald Trump signed the law after months of public and political pressure, requiring the Justice Department to provide the public with Epstein-related records by December 19.