From New York Times: Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually exploiting and abusing teenage girls, asked a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday to deny the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its investigation of the two.
“Jeffrey Epstein is dead,” her lawyers wrote. “Ghislaine Maxwell is not. Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain.”
The court filing came as two judges are considering requests by the Trump Justice Department to release the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein and Maxwell cases. The judges had set Tuesday as the deadline for victims of the scheme and Ms. Maxwell to offer their views on the proposed disclosure.
Maxwell’s attorneys accuse federal prosecutors of pivoting and making Maxwell the face of Epstein’s crimes after they lost the opportunity to prosecute him upon his death.
“She became the scapegoat and the only person the government could put on trial,” her lawyers, David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal, wrote in the letter.
On July 19, 2025, President Donald J. Trump said on Truth Social that he had requested the Department of Justice to release all Grand Jury testimony related to the case, subject to court approval.
Speculation about who might have been involved with the disgraced financier has been circulating since Epstein’s death. Som of Trump’s top aides have expressed their own concerns, leading to widespread belief among his supporters that U.S. court files hold these secrets.
Update: Ghislaine Maxwell's request to see her grand jury transcripts, even with DOJ's Todd Blanche agreeing to it, is denied just now by SDNY Judge Engelmayer. Maximum Maxwell: https://t.co/vHLVYhGe6u https://t.co/BVpJidNBrl pic.twitter.com/cbNPdZ6Jit
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) July 23, 2025
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