Judge denies release of Maxwell grand jury transcripts

With a stern rebuke, a federal judge on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts involving convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, saying “there is no ‘there’ there.”

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said there was nothing in the grand jury files to justify unsealing them, calling the government’s arguments for unsealing “disingenuous” because it would not reveal any new information about the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell .

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion – aimed not at full disclosure but at an illusion of such,” Engelmayer wr