FLORIDA -- A federal judge in Florida ordered the unsealing of grand jury transcripts and other records in the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, paving the way for the public release of those documents.

In a two-page order, Judge Rodney Smith granted the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts and modify a protective order following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law last month. Earlier this year, the judge denied the unsealing request because of strict grand jury secrecy laws, known as Rule 6(e).

“The Act applies to unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials that relate to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Consequently, the later-enacted and specific language of the Act trumps Rule 6’s prohibition on disclosure,” the judge wrote.

The Justice Department has also asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and modify a protective order relating to the investigation into Epstein, and his former girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, in the Southern District of New York.

Those requests are still pending. A lawyer representing hundreds of Epstein’s survivors urged the court to require the DOJ to work with his office to ensure that survivors are protected and their identities are not made public if any records are unsealed.

In a letter to Judge Paul Engelmayer, who is overseeing the Maxwell case, Bradley Edwards, a lawyer for survivors, said numerous survivors’ names were exposed when House committees released over 20,000 documents last month.

“The process that led to these unmistakable violations of the victims’ rights, and to the broken promises of protection made to the victims by Congress, begins with the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein and the Department of Justice and ends with the House Oversight Committee,” he wrote.

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