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The White House criticized a judge’s decision not to unseal grand jury materials related to the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, calling the ruling “unfortunate.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the remark after U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Monday shot down the motion filed by the Justice Department, finding the documents do not contain “significant, undisclosed information about [their] crimes, or the investigation into them.”
“We think that decision is unfortunate. Of course, we moved to unseal that information because the president has said he wants to see credible evidence released. As for the appeal process, I would defer you to the Department of Justice for that,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
Last month, President Donald Trump said he supported Attorney General Pam Bondi releasing “credible” files from Epstein’s sex trafficking case, noting that “She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her, whatever she thinks is credible she should release.”
EPSTEIN GRAND JURY MATERIALS WON’T BE RELEASED AFTER FEDERAL JUDGE DENIES DOJ REQUEST TO UNSEAL
Engelmayer wrote in his 31-page opinion that only two “features” of the grand jury evidence were noteworthy, summarizing them in his decision:
“First, the grand juries in this case were not used for investigative purposes,” he wrote. “They did not hear testimony from any firsthand witness to any event at issue. They did not hear testimony from any victim, eyewitness, suspect, or even a records custodian. The grand juries met instead for the quotidian purpose of returning an indictment.”
The only witnesses were members of law enforcement, and each grand jury heard evidence only for one day, he wrote.
GHISLAINE MAXWELL OPPOSES COURT UNSEALING HER GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS
“Second, the evidence put before the Maxwell grand juries is today, with only very minor exceptions, a matter of public record,” Engelmayer continued. “The Government admitted as much.”
In addition to transcripts of grand jury testimony, the Justice Department also wanted to unseal additional evidence presented as exhibits to the grand jurors. They were expected to include more names than have been publicly associated with the latter in criminal and civil court proceedings.
But Engelmayer denied the government’s request for the exhibits, too.
Fox News’ Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
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