NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Monday chided Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell for including confidential victim names in court documents to overturn his 2021 sex-trafficking conviction and free him from a 20-year prison sentence.
Judge Paul A. Engelmeier said the exhibits included in Maxwell’s habeas petition — which he filed himself without an attorney — will be sealed and kept out of public view “until they are reviewed and appropriately redacted to protect the identities of the victims.”
Any future documents the Maxwell files must be submitted under seal, the judge wrote.
He said he “reminds Maxwell, in the strongest terms, that he is prohibited from including in any public filing any information identifying the victim(s) who were not publicly identified by name during his trial.”
A message seeking comment was left with Maxwell’s attorney, David Marcus.
Maxwell filed the petition last Wednesday, two days before the Justice Department began releasing investigative records related to him and Epstein under the newly enacted Epstein File Transparency Act.
Maxwell argues that information that would have resulted in his excommunication was withheld and that false testimony was presented to the jury. He said the cumulative effect of the constitutional violations had resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice”.
Engelmeyer said Maxwell has until Feb. 17, 2026, to notify her of whether she plans to include any information from the so-called Epstein files in her petition and to file a revised version by March 31, 2026.
Slow, heavily redacted release of files
Protecting the identity of victims has been a major sticking point in the Justice Department’s ongoing release.
Blaming the delay in the process of keeping the victim’s name and other identity information confidential, the department said it plans to make the records public by the end of the year. So far, the department has not given any notification when new records are coming.
That approach angered some accusers and members of Congress who fought to pass the Transparency Act. The released records, including photos, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other documents, were either already public or largely blacked out, and many lacked necessary context.
The Senate’s top Democrat on Monday urged colleagues to take legal action over the incremental and heavily redacted release.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join a lawsuit aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law requiring disclosure of the records last month.
“Instead of transparency, the Trump administration released a small portion of the files and blacked out a large portion of the little they provided,” Schumer, DN.Y. said in a statement. “It’s a clear cover.”
Instead of Republican support, Schumer’s proposal is largely symbolic. The Senate is adjourned until Jan. 5, more than two weeks after the deadline. Even so, it will likely face an uphill battle for passage. But it allows Democrats to continue a pressure campaign for disclosures that Republicans had hoped would hold them back.
The tens of thousands of pages of records released so far contained few revelations. Some eagerly awaited records, such as FBI victim interviews and internal memos shedding light on charging decisions, were missing.
Nor was there any mention of some of the more powerful figures in Epstein’s circle, such as Britain’s former Prince Andrew.
Some files were deleted, then restored
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the Justice Department’s decision Sunday to release only a portion of the files within the deadline as necessary to protect survivors of sexual abuse by the disgraced financier.
Blanche promised that the Trump administration would fulfill its obligations as required by law. But he stressed that the department was forced to exercise caution when releasing thousands of documents that could contain sensitive information. And he said legal precedent has long established that obligations to protect victims’ privacy allow authorities to go beyond time limits to ensure their safety.
Blanche, the Justice Department’s second-in-command, also defended her decision to remove several files related to the case from her public webpage, including a photo showing Trump, a day after it was posted.
The missing files, which were available on Friday but were not accessible until Saturday, included images of paintings depicting naked women, and one showed a series of photographs in credenzas and drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a photo of Trump with Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Blanche said the documents were removed because of concerns they might also show Epstein’s victims. Blanche said Trump’s photo and other documents will be reposted once, if necessary, to protect survivors.
Trump’s photo was returned to a public webpage without changes on Sunday after it was determined that concerns that some government employees may have depicted the victims in the photo proved unfounded, the Justice Department said.
“We are not correcting the information surrounding President Trump, about anyone else involved with Mr. Epstein, and that story, which is not based on fact, is completely false,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Blanche said Trump, a Republican, has labeled the Epstein case a “hoax” because “there’s this narrative that the Justice Department is hiding and protecting information about her, which is completely false.”
“The Epstein files have been around for years and years and years and you haven’t heard a peep from a single Democrat for the last four years and yet … lo and behold, suddenly, out of the blue, Senator Schumer suddenly cares about the Epstein files,” Blanche said. “That’s cheating.”
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Associated Press reporter Kevin Fraking in Washington contributed to this report.
