A judge has made a decision in response to Donald Trump's request to unseal classified documents in relation to Jeffrey Epstein.
The President has been pressured by the US public to release more information on the disgraced financier.
A number of big names, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, have been ordered to provide evidence on the crimes committed by the late Epstein.
But Trump, whose team have tried to swerve the topic for weeks now, told Attorney General Pam Bondi to make a number of grand jury materials in relation to Maxwell public, to hush rumours of the 79-year-old hiding anything.
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I mean, how can we forget the spat between the President and his former friend Elon Musk earlier this year, where the latter claimed that Trump was named in the infamous 'Epstein files'.
Yesterday (11 August), a federal judge rejected the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury testimony records in the Ghislaine Maxwell case.
Convicted sex offender and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been behind bars since being found guilty of sex trafficking a minor among other counts. The New York-based judge has said that the move was a 'diversion', after the Department of Justice's request to release transcripts of pre-indictment and interviews with witnesses in Maxwell's case.
Judge Paul Engelmayer stated that the transcripts wouldn't be publicly released, explaining that it might start 'unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised'. Going on, he explained that it may negatively affect how confident people are in testifying before grand juries in the future. The judge also clarified that the government didn't contain any information of consequence which wasn't already public.
This decision leaves the Trump administration in a tough spot, as they may not be able to substantially address calls for transparency in the Epstein case.
“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion – aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” Engelmayer wrote in his ruling.
He went on, claiming that the grand jury testimony from Maxwell's trial is 'not a matter of significant historical or public interest'.
The judge explained that there was a 'garden-variety summary' from a couple of law enforcement agents.
Lawyer Brad Edwards, responsible for representing over 20 Epstein accusers, said that 'maximum protection for the victims was essential' and further claimed that the materials didn't have much 'value' in the first place.
Heat around the Epstein investigation won't go away from the public, who are determined to find out the names of those who were involved in the convicted pedophile's dealings.
Topics: Crime, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Politics, US News
Joshua Nair