US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in New York rejected on Monday the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury materials from the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case.

The court took grand jury secrecy into great consideration, stating:

This factor weighs heavily against unsealing. Granting the Government’s motion would bloat the “special circumstances” doctrine, which to date has warranted disclosure in only a tiny number of cases, all involving unique testimony by firsthand witnesses to events of obvious public or historical moment. And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials, because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell’s trial, would be innocuous. The same could be said for almost any grand jury testimony, by summary witnesses or oth

See Full Page