A US judge has ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts from the 2005 and 2007 investigation into convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Florida judge granted the justice department's request for the material following Congress' passage last month of a bill ordering the release of all files on the disgraced financier.
The law applies to unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to Epstein and his accomplice-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, according to the court order.
A similar Department of Justice request was rejected in August due to a violation of federal rules regarding grand jury materials, but the newly enacted law overrides those prohibitions.
US District Judge Rodney Smith granted the government's expedited motion to unseal the typically secret grand jury transcripts and modify a protective order that had previously barred the release of the materials.
In a review of the order, Judge Smith noted that the later-enacted and specific language of the Act trumps prohibition on disclosure.
The justice department is also requesting the unsealing of documents from Epstein's 2019 sex-trafficking case and Maxwell's 2021 sex-trafficking case.
The documents seek clarity on whether Epstein abused underage girls, an investigation that ended without any federal charges against him. Epstein had struck a controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2008, pleading guilty to lesser state prostitution charges while avoiding federal sex-trafficking charges.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law by President Donald Trump last month, compelling the justice department, FBI, and federal prosecutors to disclose numerous materials pertaining to Epstein by December 19. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, has recently requested early release, but the transparency law permits the justice department to withhold information that could jeopardize ongoing investigations or infringe upon the privacy of victims.
Earlier this week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released images depicting Epstein's infamous island, further feeding ongoing public interest in the case.
