NEW YORK (BN24) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is fighting to keep grand jury records under seal in the sex trafficking case that landed her in prison, her lawyers said Tuesday, even as prosecutors press to make portions of those records public.
In court filings, attorneys David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal argued that releasing transcripts of secret grand jury testimony — which Maxwell has never seen herself — would violate longstanding secrecy rules and risk compromising her due process rights. They described the material as “hearsay-laden” and stressed that it was obtained without Maxwell’s defense present to challenge the evidence.
“Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain,” the defense attorneys wrote.
Prosecutors, who declined public comment Tuesday, said in filings that they support releasing transcripts of the two grand jury witnesses — both law enforcement officials — while withholding accompanying exhibits unless they are already part of the public record. They noted that much of the content has been disclosed in Maxwell’s 2021 trial or through lawsuits filed by Epstein’s victims, albeit with victims’ and witnesses’ names redacted.
The dispute comes six years after Epstein’s death in a New York jail, officially ruled a suicide, and four years after Maxwell’s conviction for grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She is serving a 20-year sentence and has appealed without success so far.
The high-profile case remains politically charged. President Donald Trump, who has previously called for more transparency in the Epstein investigation, directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to push courts to unseal the transcripts. That order followed years of speculation from some of Trump’s allies, who have claimed the public has not been told the full story and have pushed for the release of a so-called “Epstein client list,” which the Justice Department says does not exist.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell late last month at the government’s request. Shortly afterward, she was transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security prison camp in Texas. Officials have not explained the move. Trump said Tuesday he had no prior knowledge of the transfer and had not discussed Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell.
“I think he probably wants to make sure that people should not be involved, or aren’t involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people,” Trump told reporters.
The political fallout has now reached Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for Epstein case files and ordered sworn testimony from former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and eight former senior law enforcement officials. Clinton, like Trump, has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially but denied any involvement in his crimes, and no accuser has alleged wrongdoing by either man.
