Judge denies request to unseal transcripts from grand jury that indicted Ghislaine Maxwell

NEW YORK AP Transcripts of secret grand jury testimony in the Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking episode won t be published a judge decided Monday Judge Paul A Engelmayer explained in a written ruling that the authorities had suggested that the materials could be published publicly casually or promiscuously which would peril unraveling the foundations of secrecy upon which the grand jury is premised and eroding confidence by persons called to testify before future grand juries And it is no answer to argue that releasing the grand jury materials because they are redundant of the evidence at Maxwell s trial would be innocuous The same could be mentioned for almost any grand jury testimony by summary onlookers or others given in encouragement of charges that later proceeded to trial he added Federal prosecutors had required to unseal the documents in an effort to calm a whirlpool of suspicions about what the executive knows about Jeffrey Epstein a well-connected financier who died behind bars while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges Maxwell his socialite ex-girlfriend was later convicted of helping him prey on underage girls It s unclear how much the transcripts would have revealed since the Justice Department has acknowledged that they contained no testimony from observers who were not members of law enforcement