Key Takeaways:
- Hands Tied: Judge Robin Rosenberg says Eleventh Circuit law blocks her from granting the DOJ’s request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts.
- Public Interest Denied: Trump’s DOJ argued secrecy no longer applies since Epstein’s 2019 death and pushed for transparency, citing “strong public interest.”
- The Fight Isn’t Over: Two other DOJ efforts to access grand jury records tied to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell remain pending.
A federal judge has shut down the Trump administration’s push to unseal Florida grand jury transcripts tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-old case—despite the Department of Justice arguing that the public deserves answers.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg ruled her “hands are tied,” citing an Eleventh Circuit decision that restricts unsealing records outside narrow exceptions in criminal procedure. “Eleventh Circuit law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied — a point the Government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote.
The Trump DOJ had petitioned to access testimony from two grand juries convened in 2005 and 2007, pointing to a “strong public interest in the historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted sex offender accused of trafficking minors to elites. The department also argued that secrecy no longer applies since Epstein’s death in 2019—officially ruled a suicide.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s memo noted there’s no evidence of a “client list” used for blackmail, but critics aren’t buying it. President Trump has repeatedly blasted the Epstein saga as a “scam” and “hoax,” ordering the DOJ to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”
The ruling doesn’t touch two other DOJ efforts to obtain transcripts from later probes that led to Epstein’s 2019 indictment and Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction. But for now, transparency takes a back seat to procedure—proving yet again that when it comes to elite scandals, the system protects its own.