DOJ asks judges to authorize release of Epstein and Maxwell grand jury material
(WASHINGTON) — Facing a 30-day deadline to release the Epstein files, the Department of Justice has asked two judges in the Southern District of New York to authorize the release of grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton – whom Attorney General Pam Bondi tapped to lead an investigation into prominent Democrats associated with Epstein – signed a motion asking the judges who oversaw the Epstein and Maxwell cases to approve the release of the grand jury materials, subject to the necessary redactions.
“In the light of the Act’s clear mandate, the Court should authorize the Department of Justice to release the grand jury transcripts and exhibits and modify any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure by the Government of materials the disclosure of which is required by the Act,” the motions said, referring to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, recently signed into law by President Trump.
While the motion noted that the law allows redactions to seal materials that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution,” the filings did not mention the recently initiated investigation into Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman ordered by Trump.
Citing the 30-day deadline, the Department of Justice requested an expedited ruling on the motion and said it would “work with the relevant United States Attorney’s Offices to make appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”
The Department of Justice unsuccessfully sought approval to unseal the grand jury records in August, with both judges concluding that the government did not demonstrate a legal basis to release the materials. In one decision, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman sharply criticized the DOJ for asking the court to get involved when the government already had the relevant files in their possession.
“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.
“The Government’s complete information trove would better inform the public about the Epstein case,” he added.
(SOUTH PORT, N.C.) — Three people were killed and eight others injured after a person on a boat fired shots at a waterfront bar in the coastal North Carolina city of Southport, a city spokeswoman told ABC News.
The shooting began at the Southport Yacht Basin at about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, when someone on a boat coming up Cape Fear opened fire on the American Fish Company, an outdoor bar venue, said ChyAnn Ketchum, the city’s public information officer. The boat then proceeded up the Intracoastal Waterway, she said.
The city posted a notice on its Facebook page warning of “reports of an active shooter” just before 10 p.m. along the waterfront, advising residents to avoid the area and stay in their homes.
“Shortly after 10:00 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard observed a single individual matching the description of the shooter, loading their boat at the public boat ramp at NE 55th Street in Oak Island,” Ketchum said in a statement.
She added,” The Coast Guard crew detained this suspect, who is now being held by the Oak Island Police Department, and will be turned over to the Southport Police Department for questioning, with assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation.”
Southport is a city of about 4,300 people near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The judge overseeing the Maryland deportation case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Monday denied the government’s request to delay proceedings because of the government shutdown.
The ruling came Monday during a status conference held in the case of Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man deported in error to El Salvador last March and then returned back to the United States in June to face criminal charges in Tennessee.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said she she felt “duty bound” to continue the case given its importance and the fundamental questions it raises about deportation policies.
The government was prohibited from deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, but now seeks to deport him to another country, including possibly Uganda or Eswatini. Judge Xinis has currently banned the government from removing Abrego Garcia from the continental United States.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued that the only reason for detention after there are orders of removal is to effectuate that removal. If there are no current plans for his imminent removal, they argued, then Abrego Garcia should be released from detention. Government attorneys pointed to previous court decisions that indicate they have six months’ leeway.
Judge Xinis appeared exasperated Monday with government attorneys who could not answer if there was additional evidence about removal plans to Eswatini beyond letters sent to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.
“That’s not a tenable position. You’ve either done it or you haven’t,” she said. “It’s not a hard question, guys”
Government attorneys were unable to find anyone who could address the judge’s questions about what efforts had been made to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini, citing the government shutdown as one possible reason.
The judge gave the government until Wednesday afternoon to file any evidence about steps taken to remove Abrego Garcia to Eswatini. She also asked the government to provide witnesses who can speak firsthand to those efforts.
“I am asking you really basic questions,” Xinis said. “What’s been done … have you had any conversations?”
A hearing is scheduled for Friday.
“This case is not just about one man. It is about the integrity of the U.S. Constitution,” Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, chief of organizing and leadership at the immigration rights group CASA, said at a press conference outside the courthouse prior to the hearing. “We need to continue to raise collective conscience as we continue to witness the inhumane retaliation by our government to a man and his family who are simply demanding due process.”
“Absent an appropriation, Department of Justice attorneys and employees of the federal Defendants are prohibited from working, even on a voluntary basis, except in very limited circumstances, including emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in a court filing.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys had asked that the court deny the government’s request, and also, in light of the government’s position, to allow Abrego Garcia to be released from detention.
“The mere fact that the Government is seeking to extend all deadlines in this case indefinitely shows that there is no significant likelihood that Petitioner will be removed in the reasonably foreseeable future. Accordingly, there is no justification for continuing Petitioner’s detention,” his lawyers wrote in a reply.
Abrego Garcia is currently being detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania.
Abrego Garcia was brought back to the United States from El Salvador in June to face criminal charges of human smuggling in Tennessee. The judge in that case released him into his brother’s custody in Maryland. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials then indicated that he could potentially be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to the ICE field office in Baltimore.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers in the Tennessee case have filed a motion to dismiss based on their claim of the prosecution being vindictive. A judge this past week determined that the “totality of events” creates a sufficient basis that there was a “realistic likelihood” that the government may have acted vindictively and entitles Abrego Garcia to discovery and a hearing on the matter before the court makes a decision on the motion.
A status conference is set for Friday in Nashville.
In a separate immigration court ruling last week, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s request to reopen his original immigration case. His lawyers had argued that his deportation and return to the U.S. had reset the clock on making an asylum claim, but the judge did not agree, closing that potential path to preventing deportation.
ABC News’ Rebecca Gelpi contributed to this report.
