By Jack Queen

NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) – A Florida federal judge on Friday cleared the Justice Department to release grand jury transcripts from its sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein, which could shed light on the deceased financier’s ties to rich and powerful people including President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith to unseal the records after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a bill requiring the Attorney General to release all unclassified files related to its investigations of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in prison for sex trafficking.

Trump, who said he ended his friendship with Epstein long before the financier’s 2019 arrest, had opposed the release of the files but reversed course shortly befo

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