US recognized 11th Circuit precedent prevented release of Epstein grand jury records in Florida, judge says
Precedent by a federal appeals court with jurisdiction over Florida prevents release of grand jury records in the multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein case, a fact recognized by the government, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg of the Southern District of Florida denied the government’s request to disclose the transcripts and to transfer its petition to the federal court for the Southern District of New York, where it sought the release of different grand jury records.
The government had argued that strong public interest into the historical investigation of Epstein was a special circumstance justifying disclosure. But that exception is recognized only by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York and the 7th Circuit at Chicago, Rosenberg said in a July 23 opinion.
The law in the 11th Circuit at Atlanta “does not permit this court to grant the government’s request; the court’s hands are tied—a point that the government concedes,” Rosenberg wrote.
Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure emphasizes a presumption of grand jury secrecy, Rosenberg said. The government had sought the release “outside Rule 6,” arguing that the special circumstances exception should allow disclosure, and that many of the rationales supporting secrecy no longer apply because of Epstein’s death, Rosenberg said.
But the 11th Circuit held in 2020 that a district court has no power to order release of grand jury records outside the five exceptions listed in Rule 6.
“The government concedes as much in its petition,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg cited several reasons for denying the transfer to New York, including that a transfer is allowed only if the transferring court is unable to reasonably determine whether disclosure is proper.
But “this court has already determined that the disclosure sought in this case would not be proper under clear 11th Circuit law,” Rosenberg said.
The government had sought the release of records from grand juries in West Palm Beach, Florida, that investigated Epstein in 2005 and 2007.
The government has also sought the release of federal grand jury material from 2019 and 2020 in the Southern District of New York. The 2019 grand jury charged Epstein with sex trafficking and other charges, but the indictment was dismissed after Epstein died by suicide. The 2020 grand jury charged Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
The Florida case is In Re: Grand Jury 05-02.
Hat tip to the Washington Post, one of the publications covering Rosenberg’s ruling.
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