US Justice Department bows to pressure, requests to unseal Epstein grand jury records

The US Justice Department has formally asked a court to unseal grand jury records tied to federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

The move follows growing public and political pressure for more transparency in the case.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he had ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of additional Epstein materials.

This decision came after backlash from conservatives and others demanding more openness.

“At the direction of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice hereby moves the Court to release grand jury transcripts associated with the above-referenced indictment,” the DOJ stated in the motion.

In the Friday court filing, the DOJ said the request was driven by “extensive public interest” following a July 6 memo in which the DOJ and FBI said no further files from the Epstein case would be released.

“While the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to adhere to the conclusions reached in the Memorandum, transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration,” the filing read.

“Given the public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation into Epstein, the Department of Justice moves the Court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts in United States v. Epstein, subject to appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”

The DOJ also said it would coordinate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to redact sensitive information before releasing the transcripts.

“Transparency in this process will not be at the expense of our obligation under the law to protect victims,” the department added.

The DOJ asked the court to declare that the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases are of public interest, to release the transcripts, and to lift any protective orders in place.

The motion was signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Notably, no career prosecutors from the Southern District of New York were listed on the filing.

The DOJ’s move came the same day President Trump filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, and others.

The suit is tied to a report alleging that Trump sent a birthday message to Epstein in 2003.

Trump has denied writing the letter, and ABC News has not been able to confirm its existence.

“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Friday morning.

Earlier that day, Trump dismissed the idea of any major revelations in the Epstein files.

“If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had Garland and Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!” he posted.

Trump said he told Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”

Bondi had earlier said the DOJ’s July memo “speaks for itself.”

Despite ongoing pressure, the Trump administration has rejected calls for a special prosecutor in the case.

“The idea was floated from someone in the media to the president. The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case. That’s how he feels,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent three letters to Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

He raised concerns about discrepancies in the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein records and the July 7 memo.

Durbin wrote that his office received claims that Bondi “pressured the FBI” to assign 1,000 agents, including those from the New York field office, to review around 100,000 Epstein-related files.

He said those agents were told to flag any records mentioning Trump.

Durbin asked Bondi to explain her personal role in reviewing the documents

(ABC News)

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