Late last month, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the courts to unseal grand jury transcripts in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The request was an attempt to calm the furore after the DOJ announced in June that it would not release any additional documents from the investigation into the high-profile sex trafficker.
Judges asked lawyers for Maxwell, Epstein and their victims to respond to the court by Tuesday regarding their positions on the release of the documents.
As the deadline arrives and judges consider whether to grant the DOJ’s request, we look at who Maxwell is and what the case is about.
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
Maxwell, the daughter of the late British media baron, Robert Maxwell, is the only Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities.
A former girlfriend of Epstein who later became his business associate, Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
What was Maxwell found guilty of?
At her trial, four women testified that Maxwell groomed them as teenagers to participate in sexual acts with Epstein and sometimes participated in the abuse.
She was ultimately found guilty on five of six counts: sex trafficking of minors, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors.
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Epstein himself faced federal charges related to sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy.
Why are these records being sought now?
Conspiracy theories have long swirled around Epstein’s influence and his death. The wealthy financier, whose high-profile friends included current US President Donald Trump and powerful figures on both the liberal and conservative sides of the political spectrum, was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019 before he could stand trial.
While his death was ruled a suicide, many prominent figures in Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement have long doubted that narrative, insisting – without firm evidence – that Epstein might have been killed to stop him from revealing the identities of some of his clients.
Some government officials appointed by Trump in his second term, including FBI Director Kash Patel, have previously fanned the flames of those conspiracy theories.
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi said an Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”, adding that she was following a directive from Trump to look at the files.
But in July, Bondi’s Justice Department issued a memo concluding that there was no client list and the financier had died by suicide – an apparent turnaround that sparked calls for Bondi’s resignation from parts of the MAGA movement.
Trump initially tried to dismiss that response from his support base and then tried to portray the criticism his administration was facing as orchestrated by opposition Democrats to distract from his supposed achievements as president.
But the pressure hasn’t let up. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had written a birthday note to Epstein in 2003 with the implication that the two knew each other better than the president has let on.
Trump denied writing the letter and has sued the newspaper and the author of the article. But amid the mounting scrutiny, he also ordered Bondi to seek the release of all grand jury testimony in the Epstein case.
Still, scrutiny over his administration’s actions has only grown. Last week, Maxwell was moved to an all-women federal prison camp after a meeting with a senior DOJ official.
Who are the people named in the Epstein case?
In 2024, a court unsealed about 950 pages of documents that included the names of several public figures who had known Epstein well. The presence of their names on the documents does not in itself imply any wrongdoing – although some have faced accusations that they sexually exploited women.
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Some of the most prominent figures in the documents include:
- Prince Andrew: Johanna Sjoberg, who is one of the many women who have accused Epstein of sexual abuse, said in the documents that the British royal put his hand on her breast in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse in 2001. Virginia Giuffre, another of Epstein’s accusers, also alleged that Andrew sexually abused her two decades ago when she was 17, an allegation the prince called baseless. Giuffre’s lawsuit against Andrew was settled in 2022.
- Alan Dershowitz: An unnamed accuser said Epstein “required” her to have sexual relations with the Harvard University law professor on multiple occasions when she was a minor.
- David Copperfield: Sjoberg testified to meeting the American magician at one of Epstein’s houses. She added that she observed him to be a friend of Epstein’s.
- Bill Clinton: While Sjoberg said she did not meet the former US president, she testified that Epstein said to her: “Clinton likes them young,” apparently referring to girls. Clinton has repeatedly rejected all allegations that he was involved in anything unlawful and has said he had no interactions with Epstein for several years before the financier’s arrest.
- Trump: Sjoberg mentioned an incident when she flew with Epstein, Giuffre and a few others on a plane from Palm Beach, Florida, in 2001. When the plane was unable to land in New York due to a storm, they had to land in Atlantic City and went to one of Trump’s casinos.
Why does it matter whether these trial transcripts are unsealed?
The documents could show the information that the grand jury had before it while deliberating the case. Bondi’s DOJ said in a filing that the transcripts contain nothing that is not already known publicly.
It could help Trump and his team beat back accusations from the president’s base that they have anything to hide.
Is Maxwell going to testify to Congress?
The House of Representatives Oversight Committee subpoenaed Maxwell in late July, seeking her deposition on Monday. Maxwell’s lawyer has said she is willing to testify before Congress.
But the committee has since said it is willing to postpone Maxwell’s deposition while the Supreme Court decides whether to take up her appeal against her 2021 conviction.