Donald Trump news: US Justice Department asks court to unseal Epstein, Maxwell grand jury transcripts

The Department of Justice on Friday asked federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts in the criminal cases of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his convicted procurer of young girls, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The formal requests came one day after President Donald Trump said he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”

Trump suggested he was taking that step in order to tamp down on the growing pressure from his own supporters to release the so-called Epstein files. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” he wrote in a Truth Social post at the time.

Less than two weeks earlier, the Justice Department said in a memo that it would not disclose any more information related to Epstein’s federal sex trafficking case after conducting an “exhaustive review.”

But since then, “there has been extensive public interest in the basis for the Memorandum’s conclusions,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in separate court filings in the Epstein and Maxwell cases in Manhattan federal court.

“While the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to adhere to the conclusions reached in the Memorandum, transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration,” Blanche wrote.

“Given the public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation into Epstein, the Department of Justice moves the Court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts,” subject to appropriate redactions, he wrote.

Those redactions encompass “victim-related and other personal identifying information,” Blanche wrote.

A footnote in the identical documents says that a similar request will be filed in federal court in southern Florida. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting an underage prostitute.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 and killed himself in prison weeks later. Maxwell, his longtime confidant, was convicted in 2021 of acting as a recruiter of young girls who would later be abused by Epstein. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in Florida.

Earlier Friday afternoon, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against media giant Rupert Murdoch and multiple Wall Street Journal journalists, hours after they reported that a collection of birthday letter to Epstein in 2003 included a “bawdy” message signed by Trump.

The president has denied penning the message.