A New York City judge denied President Trump's request to unseal grand jury material from the Jeffrey Epstein case, calling the request inappropriate and a distraction.
Richard Berman, a Clinton appointee, essentially accused the administration of trying to pass the buck on the Epstein files.
"The instant grand jury motion appears to be a 'diversion' from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government's possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct," he wrote.
Berman was set to preside over Epstein's trial for sex trafficking when the financier died in his Manhattan prison cell in August 2019.
Earlier this summer, the Justice Department said it would not release further information in the case, sparking an uproar within Trump's MAGA movement.
The DOJ's memo concluded that Epstein died by suicide and that he did not have blackmail on a secret list of clients - contradicting speculation that has circulated for years about Epstein's powerful connections.
To quiet backlash from the right, the Trump administration started seeking the release of grand jury materials, but the requests have been shot down repeatedly.
The denial from Judge Berman marks the third time that the DOJ's grand jury push has been shut down.
Berman said that the government did not provide sufficient justification for releasing sensitive grand jury material that is normally kept confidential.
The judge said the grand jury evidence could expose victims to harm if released, and the material in the government's possession would be more instructive.
"The Government's 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials," Berman wrote.
Democrats have made releasing the Epstein files a priority, seizing on the issue to cast suspicion on Trump and his administration. But Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have also demanded transparency, while drawing attention to Epstein's Democratic connections like Bill Clinton.
According to House Oversight chairman James Comer (R-KY), the Justice Department had agreed to begin sharing the Epstein files with Congress on Friday, August 21.
“We’re going to review (them) and we’ll work as quickly as we can. You know, this is sensitive information. We want to make sure we don’t do anything to harm or jeopardize any victims that were involved in this, but we’re going to be transparent. We were doing what we said we would do. We’re getting the documents, and I believe the White House will work with us,” he told reporters Friday on Capitol Hill.
