Ghislaine Maxwell Moves to Block Trump DOJ’s Request to Unseal Grand Jury Transcripts

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense team is opposing efforts to unseal grand jury transcripts from her trial, arguing it could jeopardize her appeal to the Supreme Court.

“Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,” Maxwell’s attorney wrote on Tuesday. “Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.”

The Department of Justice previously moved to unseal the grand jury testimony as President Donald Trump continues to face calls to release more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child predator who died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while being charged with sex trafficking.

Two judges are weighing the DOJ request and Tuesday was set as the deadline for Maxwell’s lawyers to respond. David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal, Maxwell’s lawyers, claimed in their response that Maxwell has become a “scapegoat.”

“She became the scapegoat and the only person the government could put on trial,” they wrote.

Maxwell is a longtime associate — and once girlfriend — of Epstein. She is serving 20 years for sex trafficking after the DOJ said she conspired with Epstein for years to sexually abuse minors. In the midst of backlash over Epstein and a DOJ memo denying the existence of a high profile client list, Maxwell as met multiple times with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. She was also recently moved to a minimum security prison in Texas. Trump has kept the door open on a pardon, but made clear he’s not given it serious thought.