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Presses and breaking news A federal judge in New York has denied the Trump administration's attempt to mislead the American people into thinking that the grand jury transcripts in the Maxwell and Epstein criminal cases are the Epstein files, and has denied having those grand jury transcripts released to the American people. But before he does it, Judge Paul Engelmeier in New York does a couple of critical things that advances the debate and the charges against the Trump administration for hiding and covering up the Epstein conspiracy. In the first part of his order that I'm going to read to you, I'm going to put it up on Legal AF substack as well. In the first part, he outlines all the ways that Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim, but that she was convicted of heinous crimes and being involved with the rape and sexual abuse of girls. I think he does that for a reason, to set the record straight. Now that he's read, I'm sure all of the attempts by the Trump administration and others around him to rehabilitate the reputation of Ghislaine Maxwell, much to the discredit of the victims, undermining again and victimizing the victims. So there's that section of the order. Let's talk about who Ghislaine Maxwell really is based on evidence, not based on right wing podcasters and right wing sycophants for Donald Trump trying to make Ghislaine Maxwell's future pardon palatable. Then he goes over all the ways that the government has previously promised that they would be completely transparent and release all of the documents, 300 gigabytes of documents. Judge Engelmeier reminds the Trump administration and the public for the public record of that as well. And then finally he looks at the fact that there are no special circumstances present at all to undermine what's called the rule of secrecy, which generally cloaks any grand jury process in secrecy. So it's not disclosed to the public for good reason. He finds no special circumstances are present and finds basically that the Trump position is laughable and demonstrably free. False. His words. I'm Michael Popo. These are my words. I'm on Midas touch and on Legal af. I got it in my hands. I wanted to report on it right away. But the structure of the opinion and order by Judge Engelmeier, so powerful in what he says about the Trump position to set the record straight and that's what federal judges should be doing. He's the second federal judge to have rejected Donald Trump's attempt to redefine for the American public in their mind that the Epstein files are the grand jury transcripts. He reminded Judge Engelmeier, just as Judge Rosenberg did when she rejected a similar application two weeks ago. And there's one more that we're waiting on because Engel, Engelmeier is the judge that took over the case involving Maxwell. We're still waiting for the Epstein judge to make his ruling, but I'm sure it'll be about the same. And as part of process, how we got here is that the government moved to unseal stating, get this, as Donald Trump is telling his public and maga, there's nothing to see here. Why are we still talking about this story where you're asking it's criminal. You're asking the story again. I'm trying to talk about tariffs. At the same time, the Bondi and the Attorney General files papers saying it's of great public importance. The public needs to know about the Epstein files, which we want people to believe is just the grand jury. And the grand jury was just one day grand jury for Epstein, one day grand jury for Ghislaine Maxwell. There were two total witnesses in the grand jury and the only people they testified about, testified about criminal, sexual criminal conduct by Maxwell and Epstein and that was it. Just summary witnesses by law enforcement. So the judge is like, there's nothing here that hasn't already been brought out to the public and more is in the public based on lawsuits brought by the victims. But let me go through, in order, the structure of this. First, the judge letting the public know in his own way that not only is Ghislaine Maxwell no saint, but she is a criminal sinner when it comes to the abuse of girls and women and her involvement in it. She's not a victim, she is the henchman and the only living co conspirator of this sex child, sex trafficking ring. This is what he says on pages two through four, on June 29, 2020, a grand jury in this district, that's in New York, returned a six count indictment against Maxwell, alleging that she had facilitated and participated in Epstein sexual abuse of multiple minor girls. It charged her with conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, and two counts of pur. It based these charges on her conduct with respect to three minor victims whom the government identified pseudonymously, meaning they didn't name the names. On July 8, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment, this time adding charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy, sex trafficking of a minor in the indictment, and sexual abuse from 1994 to 2004. Then on pages two to three, Judge Engelmeier reminds the world that Maxwell was given a trial. Sometimes you watch right wing media and you're like, oh, why is she in prison? Well, here's why she's in prison. It was before Judge Allison Nathan. She's now been elevated to the 2nd Circuit. There were six counts and the jury on the indictment ended with a conviction of five of the six counts, including the five of the six counts. In brief, the government's. This is on page three. In brief, the government's evidence included the testimony of four women who described the sexual abuse they had suffered as girls at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell. She's not a victim, she's a participant in deviant sexual abuse of girls. The testimony of the individuals who work for Epstein and Maxwell. The testimony of law enforcement officials corroborating physical evidence, including photographs of evidence, and recovered from searches of Epstein's residents. That's the Epstein files. The searches of Epstein's residents. The black book for Epstein and Maxwell, corroborating records, the flight logs to the island and the rest. The trial evidence, the judge continues, focused on six girls, including the four testifying victims who suffered abusive sexual conduct as a result of Maxwell's criminal actions. There's a reason the judge is so focused on setting the record straight on Maxwell and credit to him. Because he understands there are thousands of victims, including those who have the courage to testify against Maxwell at trial, including the ones that have been named with pseudonyms, Jane, Kate, Annie, Carolyn, Virginia and Melissa. It established that Maxwell, the judge continues, had been instrumental in an approximately decade long scheme of Epstein to entice, groom, transport and traffic numerous women and underage girls to engage in sexual activity. Maxwell helped to identify these vulnerable girls for abuse she then on page four, she manipulated that trust to normalize sexual abuse by Epstein and her see, she's involved. Maxwell and Epstein also paid young girls cash for the sexual abuse. Maxwell fostered a culture of silence. There's a reason the judge leads off with that. That's a credit to the victims. That is a testimony for the victims so that they're not lost and forgotten in this case. You ever have a meal that just stays with you? Like for me it was this spicy citrus marinated grilled fish thing I had on vacation last summer. It was perfectly charred, bursting with flavor and I still crave it. That's exactly what Cook Unity delivers. Meals so good they stick in your memory. Cook Unity was made for adventurous eaters with countless global cuisines from more than 160 award winning chefs. Explore an ever expanding menu of small batch meals tailored to your lifestyle, dietary needs and cravings and get them delivered right to your door. My Go to chef Andres Mendez's Chicken Pibil bowl with passion fruit. Perfectly juicy protein. That sauce I could drink by the spoonful and made with humanely raised meat and organic ingredients when possible. 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This is the judge announcing to the world I'm not going to be releasing the grand jury files. But they're not the Epstein files. The Epstein files, the the Trump administration has. So he's powerful when a federal judge reminds you of that. So here's what he says on pages 6, 6, 7 and 8 of the order. He says. On February 27, 2025, the Department of Justice justice issued a press release. It stated that the Attorney General and The FBI had declassified and were publicly releasing files relating to Epstein's exploitation of more than 250 girls. Quoting the Attorney General and the FBI that they're committed to transparency and lifting the veil of the disgusting actions. The first phase of the files will be released. There'll be no cover ups, no missing document and no stone left unturned. That's Cash Patel quoted back to him by Judge Engelmeier in the same press release is on page seven. The judge said that the from the There's a letter from the Attorney General to the FBI Director Cash Patel saying by 8am tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including video and the rest. On July 6, the judge remarks or reports the DOJ and FBI issued another memorandum regarding Epstein in which it stated that there were 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence that the FBI conducted digital searches of databases, hard drives, network drives, physical searches of squad areas, locked cabinets, desk, closets and other areas and that the Epstein files include a large volume of images of Epstein of victims, victims of child sexual abuse, not most, most of which had not been disclosed at trial, but that they had not yet recovered the client list. The judge's reason for putting this in to his order is where are all those documents? That is what the public needs. Don't come knocking on my door to ask me to violate the rule of secrecy about grand jury transcripts that don't have anything in it except for testimony by law enforcement about Maxwell and Epstein released the file. So he's doing a public service here. Then after validating the victims, after excoriating the Trump administration for lying to the American people about releasing the Epstein files that they have not released and continue to this moment to refuse to release. It's the crime and the COVID up. He then goes over the reason, the rationale, the basis for Donald Trump coming to court asking Engelmeier and other judges to release the grand jury file. And he says it seems to be extensive public interest in this, which is being fomented by the Trump administration's refusal to be transparent and remember. Yet at the same time you got Donald Trump saying this isn't, this is boring details, this is boring stuff. Can't we talk about tariffs? Why are we still talking about Epstein at the same time as Department of Justice and Pam Bondi runs to court and files a document that says it's of great public importance. The judge says, well let me take a look, close look at that argument and see if that gets over the secrecy issue and what the judge says there is. Let me take a look at that issue. It says under 50, page 15, over to 19. The government invokes the special circumstance doctrine on the ground that there is abundant public interest, including that the public officers, lawmakers and pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested in this matter. And it's a critical part of our nation's history. Here's what the judge says about that. The government's invocation of special circumstances on page 16 of his opinion fails at the threshold. Its entire premise that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes or the government's investigation into them is demonstrably false. The court, having received the government's motion to unseal and having reviewed substantial amounts of grand jury materials in camera reveals that that the court the government's submission in response to the court's orders are telling is on page 16. They belie the government's claim that the Maxwell grand jury materials contain significant undisclosed information about Epstein's and Maxwell crimes or the investigation into them. There's none of that, he said. I looked inside of that. There were one day grand juries with one witness or two witnesses of peace doing summary evidence. They're just annotated. They're just transcripts of stuff that's either already in the public domain or doesn't compare to the 300 gigabytes that you say that you have that you haven't released to the public. So here's the judge in his own way saying the same thing. Release the files and don't come knocking at my door or sending the press to me, acting like I'm covering it up by not releasing the grand jury files. That's the point of this. There's no there there, he says on page 19. Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine load of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates. They definitely are. Not that a public official, lawmaker, pundit or ordinary citizen deeply interested or concerned who reviewed these materials expecting based on the government's representations to learn new information about Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes and the investigation into them would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no there there. I'm not releasing the grand jury transcripts. Release the damn files. That's my end line for Judge Engelmeier's 38 page order. We're going to get another one from the judge. That's handling the the Epstein side of the grand jury transcripts. But I wanted you to take away from this how important and powerful the way the judge starts with vindicating the victims, undermining Maxwell's argument that she's a victim in the public's mind, reminding people of the gross and detest crimes that she committed, and then that the reminding the public that the Trump administration is misleading you about the definition of the Epstein files and they should be releasing them. I'm going to continue to cover this story both here on Midas Touch and on Legal af. Come over to Legal af. Hit the free subscribe button. A dozen new videos a day. I got some great interviews about the Epstein matter coming up on the channel. Scott Perryman, Democracy Forward, whose group filed the one and only lawsuit to obtain from the administration all of the files that Judge Engelmeier just identified. She's coming on to talk about that and the fact that Judge Chutkan in the DC Election interference case has been assigned to that case only on legal AF YouTube. So until my next report, this is Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack back. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from ligalayoff are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.