A federal judge said Wednesday she lacks the authority to grant the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to investigations of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in South Florida in 2005 and 2007.
Judge Robin Rosenberg for the Southern District of Florida said that under a precedent set by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a district court cannot release grand jury material without a noted exception under a federal rule, which the administration did not identify.
“Eleventh Circuit law does not permit this Court to grant the Government’s request; the Court’s hands are tied — a point that the Government concedes,” wrote Judge Rosenberg, an Obama appointee.
In 2005 Epstein, then a financier suspected of sex trafficking minors, was initially investigated in Florida for prostitution with a high school girl. He pleaded guilty to a state charge of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.
The