The Department of Justice revealed overnight that there were only ever two witnesses who testified during the grand jury proceedings before the two grand juries investigating Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York, and said that much of the grand jury testimony was consistent with accounts made public at trial.
DOJ faced a deadline by a judge in the Southern District of New York to submit a memorandum in support of unsealing the Epstein- and Maxwell-related grand jury materials to the court.
“Here, there was one witness—an FBI agent—during the Epstein grand jury proceedings,” the filing says. “There were two witnesses—the same FBI agent from the Epstein grand jury proceedings and a detective with the NYPD who was a Task Force Officer with the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force—during the Maxwell grand jury proceedings.”
The government revealed that many of the victims whose accounts were subject to grand jury testimony testified at trial, and therefore believes that much of the material has already been made public.
“Many of the victims whose accounts relating to Epstein and Maxwell that were the subject of grand jury testimony testified at trial consistent with the accounts described by an FBI agent and the detective from the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) in the grand jury and some have also made public those factual accounts in the course of civil litigation,” the filing says.
DOJ says it proposes redacting any transcripts that contain victim-related and other personal identifying information.
DOJ also admits they never attempted to contact or provide notice to the victims who may be referenced in the grand jury transcripts.
Since asking the court to unseal grand jury materials the government has “now provided notice to all but one of the victims who are referenced in the grand jury transcripts at issue in this motion,” the papers say.
