NEW YORK — A federal judge who presided over the sex trafficking case against financier Jeffrey Epstein has joined two other judges in rejecting the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the decades-long sexual abuse suffered by girls and young women who fell into his orbit.

The ruling Wednesday by Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan came after the judge presiding over the case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, also turned down the government’s request.

Barring reversal on appeal, Berman’s decision forecloses the possibility of grand jury testimony being released now that three judges have reached the same conclusion. A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and

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