Amid a firestorm of controversy after the Justice Department’s recent announcement that it would not be releasing Jeffrey Epstein documents, Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a motion July 18 in New York federal court, seeking the release of grand jury transcripts for the indictments of Epstein in July 2019 and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in June 2020.
President Donald Trump directed Bondi to seek the release after MAGA supporters called for more transparency in the case and a report by the Wall Street Journal describing a bawdy letter from Trump to Epstein for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The transcripts of the 2006 Jeffrey Epstein state grand jury that resulted in only a solicitation of prostitution charge are already public, thanks to a lawsuit by The Palm Beach Post, but it took nearly five years to get them released.
The Post’s case is cited in the petitions to make the federal indictments public, filed in both the Epstein and Maxwell criminal cases.
The newspaper had sued after learning in a 2019 investigation that prosecutors had tanked their own case during the secret proceeding. Circuit Judge Luis Delgado released the 176-page transcript on July 1, 2024.
On the day The Post published its investigation, the newspaper sued to lift the veil of secrecy for the public and for the survivors. The following document shows the stunning details of the proceeding, including the prosecutor telling the only two victims who testified that they themselves were criminals.
Jeffrey Epstein secret transcripts: Victim was asked, Do you know ‘you committed a crime?’
Hear Palm Beach Post Investigations Editor Holly Baltz discuss what the transcripts reveal (at 8:10):
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jeffrey Epstein 2006 grand jury transcripts already public: Read here