Earlier this month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested the release of grand jury transcripts related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The DOJ went further this week by asking that exhibits which were shown to both grand juries also be made public.  

DOJ will inform individuals named in exhibits

According to ABC News, a court filing submitted by prosecutors on Friday shows that the exhibits contain names of individuals which do not appear in the transcripts.

The DOJ indicated that it is attempting to notify the people in question "to the extent their names appear in grand jury exhibits that were not publicly admitted at the Maxwell trial."

Government attorneys have requested a deadline of August 14 to inform those who will be affected. The exact number of names was not provided.

Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years behind bars for her role in helping Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls in 2022, and she is fighting the DOJ's request to unseal grand jury transcripts.

Attorney highlights his client's "due process rights"

The Hill reported this past Tuesday that David Oscar Markus is Maxwell's attorney, and he filed a brief which argued that his client "has no choice" but to oppose the DOJ's motion.

"Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain," Markus wrote.

Markus pointed to how U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer has shot down her request to first review the transcripts even though the DOJ has voiced no objections.

"Given that she is actively litigating her case and does not know what is in the grand jury record, she has no choice but to respectfully oppose the government’s motion to unseal it," Markus asserted.

Judge: Maxwell "has not shown" a "compelling necessity" to review material

For his part, Engelmayer noted in a decision issued on July 23 how "[i]t is black-letter law that defendants are generally not entitled to access grand jury materials."

"Post-trial motions by defendants seeking such access are almost invariably denied, for failure to make a showing of compelling necessity," he continued.

"Maxwell has not made that showing. She has not shown, or attempted to show, that the grand jury materials in her case are apt to reveal any deficiency in the proceedings leading to her indictment," the federal judge went on to add.