Ghislaine Maxwell says release of Epstein grand jury transcript may harm her case

NEW YORK – Ghislaine Maxwell told a judge that

releasing grand jury transcripts

from her case would cause severe harm to her anticipated request for a new trial.

Lawyers for Maxwell said in a court filing on Dec 3 that releasing the grand jury files from her case could interfere with her plans to file a motion seeking a new trial over crimes she was convicted of committing with Jeffrey Epstein.

However, she said that she did not take a position on a request by prosecutors to unseal the material in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in November.

“Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” her lawyers said in a letter to US District Judge Paul Engelmayer.

Her lawyers said she will shortly file the petition, pro se, or without her lawyers signing on to it.

The 63-year-old Maxwell was convicted of participating in Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls and is serving a 20 year sentence in a Texas prison. The US Supreme Court rejected her bid to overturn the conviction in October.

Epstein victim Annie Farmer said in a separate letter that she continues to favour the release of grand jury transcripts and documents with redactions to protect the victims. She asked that the court to make clear that any redactions should not affect the ability of the Justice Department to release evidence subject to the Transparency Act.

After passage of the law, Justice Department attorneys asked federal judges in New York and Florida to unseal grand jury testimony and evidence from two criminal cases against Epstein and one against Maxwell. 

Mr Trump signed the legislation

, passed with near-unanimous Congressional support, in November to force the Justice Department to release its files on Epstein after spending months trying to block it. 

The law requires the release of all files and records, including investigations, flight logs, travel records, immunity deals, internal DOJ communications, and all records related to Epstein’s 2019 death in prison. 

Mr Engelmayer, another judge in New York and one in Florida had previously declined to release the grand jury material before passage of the law. BLOOMBERG