A federal judge in the United States has rejected a request from the Department of Justice to release transcripts from a grand jury investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On Wednesday, US District Judge Robin Rosenberg of Florida indicated her hands were “tied” in the matter.
The unsealing of grand jury testimony is relatively rare, given the need for secrecy in such sensitive criminal investigations.
There are only narrow exceptions to federal criminal procedure that would allow for the transcripts to be released, and Judge Rosenberg indicated that those were not met by the Justice Department’s requests.
The request Judge Rosenberg received was one of three issued by the Justice Department, as it seeks to tamp down outrage from President Donald Trump’s base about the lack of recent revelations in the Epstein scandal.
Epstein scandal fuels conspiracy theories
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi played up the impending release of a trove of documents related to Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender whose entourage included high-profile figures.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York, fuelling conspiracy theories that his death might have been a cover-up orchestrated by powerful, shadowy figures.
But the nearly 200 pages Bondi and the Justice Department ultimately published failed to produce any major new revelations. It also notably lacked the “client list” that Bondi told Fox News was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
Some of President Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters had pushed the idea that paedophiles had infiltrated the highest levels of government and popular media, and that Epstein kept a client list in order to blackmail those power brokers.
Even Trump’s appointee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, and his second-in-command Dan Bongino had promoted the conspiracy theories, claiming there was a “black book” or “list” in the government’s possession that would prove the Epstein rumours.
But the FBI and the Justice Department have since attempted to quash that speculation. In July, the agencies released a joint memorandum denying the existence of such a list.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” it read.
Scrutiny on Trump
That, however, did little to abate the outrage, and scrutiny has since turned to President Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.
The Wall Street Journal this month published a report alleging that Trump had signed a birthday note to Epstein featuring a suggestive message, alongside a doodle of a naked woman. Trump denied ever writing or drawing such a birthday message, and he has since sued the newspaper and its parent company.
But on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal continued its coverage of the Epstein scandal with an article that alleged the Justice Department knew Trump’s name appeared multiple times in files related to the sex offender.
Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, called the latest report “another fake news story”.
Trump has called for all the Epstein transcripts to be released, calling the ongoing scandal a “scam” and a “hoax”. He also repudiated any of his supporters who believed the rumours.
“My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bull****,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on social media on July 16. “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work.”
While the Justice Department has argued there is “extensive public interest” in releasing the grand jury transcripts, experts say those testimonies are unlikely to contain the full extent of the evidence in the Epstein case.
Federal grand jury testimonies are usually brief, supplying only enough information to secure an indictment.
One former federal prosecutor, Sarah Krissoff, told The Associated Press the transcripts are likely to be a “distraction”.
“The president is trying to present himself as if he’s doing something here, and it really is nothing,” Krissoff said in an interview published earlier this week.
Democrats seek advantage
Democrats, meanwhile, have sought to highlight the lingering questions about Epstein in a bid to damage Trump’s reputation with his supporters.
In the House of Representatives, for instance, Democrats on the Committee for Oversight launched a bid to subpoena the Justice Department for all its Epstein files.
Rather than risk a vote to push for further Epstein records, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the chamber early for its six-week August recess.
Democrats like Representative Summer Lee seized upon that manouevre as evidence of complicity.
“They’re fleeing our work, our job and sending us back home because they don’t want to vote to release these files,” Lee said.
But Johnson defended the move this week, saying Trump officials were “already doing everything within their power to release them”.