US Attorney Jay Clayton cited the Epstein Files Transparency Act - passed by Congress last week and signed into law by President Donald Trump - in court filings asking Manhattan federal Judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer to reconsider their prior decisions to keep the material sealed.
The Justice Department interprets the transparency act "as requiring it to publish the grand jury and discovery materials in this case", said the eight-page filings, which also bear the names of Attorney General Pam Bondi and her second-in-command, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The filings are among the first public indications that the Justice Department is working to comply with the transparency act, which requires that it make Epstein-related files public in a searchable and downloadable format within 30 days of Trump signing it into law. That means no later than December 19.
The Justice Department asked Berman and Engelmayer for expedited rulings allowing the release of the grand jury materials, which contains testimony from law enforcement witnesses but no victims, arguing that the new law supersedes existing court orders and judicial policies that "would otherwise prevent public disclosure".
In its filing on Monday, the Justice Department said any materials made public could be partially redacted to prevent the disclosure of things like victims' personal identifying information.
The transparency act compels the Justice Department, the FBI and federal prosecutors to release the vast troves of material they've amassed during investigations into Epstein's decades-long sexual abuse of young women and girls.
The law mandates the release of all unclassified documents and investigative materials, including files relating to immunity deals and internal Justice Department communications about whom to charge or investigate.
Berman has previously said that the grand jury transcripts in Epstein's case amount to about 70 pages, along with a PowerPoint slideshow and call log. The only witness to testify was an FBI agent who "had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case", Berman noted in his prior ruling.
The FBI agent testified on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The July 2 session ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. He was arrested on July 6, 2019 and found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 2019.
The same FBI agent testified before the Maxwell grand jury, which met in June and July 2020 and March 2021, the Justice Department has said. The only other witness was a New York City police detective.
