A federal judge has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to unseal transcripts from two Florida grand juries that investigated Jeffrey Epstein nearly two decades ago, saying she lacks the legal authority to grant the request.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, who serves in the Southern District of Florida, ruled Wednesday that existing Eleventh Circuit precedent prevents her from releasing the records, which remain sealed under federal grand jury rules.
“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 in her order, according to CNBC.
The Justice Department, under Attorney General Pam Bondi, had petitioned for access to the transcripts from two grand juries convened in West Palm Beach in 2005 and 2007.
Federal prosecutors argued that there was a “strong public interest in the historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted sex offender suspected of trafficking minors to other wealthy and well-connected figures.
The DOJ also noted that “many of the rationales supporting grand jury secrecy” no longer apply, given Epstein’s death in 2019 — officially ruled a suicide — and the passage of time. In its controversial filing, the department further stated that investigators had found “no evidence” of the rumored “client list” some speculated Epstein used to blackmail associates.
But Rosenberg said neither argument qualified as an exception to the rules governing the release of grand jury material.
The judge’s decision applies only to the transcripts from the Florida proceedings. It does not affect two separate Justice Department petitions seeking to unseal grand jury records from later New York investigations tied to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors.
The Trump administration has pushed for the release of the records following public criticism of the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein case.
