Judge roasts Trump DOJ on Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury "diversion"

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Refusing to unseal Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records, a federal judge on Monday wrote that Donald Trump’s Justice Department seems more interested in creating a “diversion” than producing actual transparency over the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Katie Phang and I report the most scathing passages from the ruling in this video, which you can read in full here.

In a 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer noted that Trump’s Justice Department itself indicated that the Maxwell grand jury records would reveal nothing new.

“The one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case, in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote in a blistering ruling. “A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.”