The long shadow of Jeffrey Epstein’s case surfaced again in a New York courtroom, but this time the gavel came down on the Trump administration, not the judges.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman ruled that if the public is hungry for answers about Epstein’s world of power, wealth, and exploitation, the government already has more than enough material to feed that appetite — and it’s not sitting in his chambers.
The Justice Department had asked to unlock grand jury records from Epstein’s 2019 indictment. But Berman wasn’t impressed. He pointed out that the slim 70-page packet the grand jury reviewed is a drop in the ocean compared to the *100,000 pages* of investigative files the government holds — and continues to keep under wraps. In his words, the move to push the courts was little more than a “diversion.”
The clash comes as President Donald Trump, now campaigning on promises of transparency, faces sharp criticism for his administration’s decision not to release those deeper investigative files. His own base, along with Democrats in Congress, has accused him of dodging the very disclosures he vowed to deliver.
Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting sex-trafficking charges, left behind unanswered questions and conspiracy theories that continue to fester. His high-profile connections only amplified suspicions that powerful figures had much to lose if the truth ever came out.
Trump attempted to quell unrest by instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to request the grand jury release. But as Berman and another judge reminded him, grand juries operate in secrecy — and the slim case file presented to them was hardly the treasure trove of secrets the public imagines.
Judge Paul Engelmayer, ruling earlier this month on a similar request tied to Ghislaine Maxwell’s case, dismissed it as smoke and mirrors, saying the files added nothing beyond what her 2021 trial already revealed. Maxwell, now serving 20 years, is still trying to push her fight up to the Supreme Court.
For now, the message is clear: if the truth about Epstein is to surface, it won’t come from dusty grand jury exhibits. The vault lies within the Justice Department itself — and whether it’s opened depends on politics, not the courts.
