FBI Fighting to Keep Epstein Files Secret?

FBI files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein will remain sealed after a judge ruled against a media outlet’s attempts to release secret documents related to the deceased financier and convicted pedophile. However, an attorney for said media outlet told Newsweek the fight’s may not be over yet.

Epstein, a convicted sex offender linked to numerous high-profile celebrities and public figures, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges of trafficking minors for sex in Florida and New York between 2002 and 2005. He was indicted later that year.

He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial. Though his death was ruled a suicide, a portion of the public has remained skeptical about what actually happened and even Epstein’s lawyers have challenged that ruling.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York ruled against the independent, privately owned entertainment company RadarOnline. The decision was based on keeping FBI files hidden due to possibly interfering with a potential retrial of his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

“This court concludes that (the FBI) provides sufficient details for the Court to trace a rational link between the information contained in the records and the potential interference with law enforcement proceedings, and the FBI has thus met its burden for withholding disclosure of the records,” Gardephe said in his ruling, according to RadarOnline.

The case for now concludes efforts first made by the company in 2017 when it filed a Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] request to retrieve records.

Newsweek reached out via email to RadarOnline and the FBI for comment.

Maurene Comey, a U.S. attorney from the same district and the lead prosecutor against Maxwell, reportedly told the court the disclosure would impact witness testimony, prejudice the jury pool “so as to hinder the government’s ability to present its case in court,” and provide Maxwell with greater access “to the investigatory files than she would otherwise have during the criminal discovery process.”

In previous filings, the FBI admitted the documents in their possession, of which only a “small fraction” had ever been made public, included evidentiary and investigative materials such as “copies of records or evidence, analysis of that evidence, and derivative communications summarizing or otherwise referencing evidence.”

Other material included “internal communications among investigators within the FBI providing updates regarding the status of the investigation, including witness interviews and discussions of evidence gathered during the investigation” and “communications between the FBI and other government agencies regarding the investigation.”

First Amendment attorney Dan Novack represented RadarOnline in the suit. It remains unclear whether the ruling will be appealed.

Novack, who has fought for the records to go public for roughly seven years, told Newsweek via email on Thursday that he remains “optimistic” of the records ultimately being obtained.

He said his side’s arguments are already “strong” for an appeal and will have more weight when “excuses for withholding will no longer apply once Maxwell’s longshot appeal is rejected for good by the courts.”

“I believe the reason they have not been disclosed is fear of embarrassment,” Novack said. “If the DOJ [Department of Justice] believed the records had public value, they could have released them (and still can).

“How is the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein not of the highest public interest? It strains credulity to assert that the DOJ was truly concerned about Epstein’s privacy in 2016, or is truly concerned about winning a hypothetical retrial of Maxwell in 2024.”

He pointed to how RadarOnline submitted its FOIA request when Epstein was still a free man. Now, Novack believes the American public should get the truth.

“The FBI spent two years insisting that Epstein’s privacy outweighed the public interest, only pivoting to new arguments once he died,” he said. “That’s bad faith. Americans deserve to know what happened, not only for reasons of accountability but also to prevent future miscarriages of justice.”