A federal judge Monday denied the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls.

Unsealing the transcripts would be an exception to the secrecy of grand juries, wrote the judge supervising Maxwell’s case, Paul A. Engelmayer.

Permitting such an exception “casually or promiscuously” would erode confidence in people called to testify before future panels, Engelmayer wrote in a 31-page opinion.

He said the Justice Department’s “entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the government’s investigation into the

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