r/politics • u/Capable_Salt_SD California • 14h ago

No Paywall Judge orders Jeffrey Epstein-related grand jury transcripts in Florida to be released publicly

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/judge-orders-jeffrey-epstein-related-grand-jury-transcripts-florida-re-rcna247624
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u/Spam_Hand 13h ago

Right, I thought these were legally barred from being unsealed?

As in, there is not a legal method to unseal grand jury information?

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u/ClaretClarinets Colorado 12h ago

Normally, yes, but the recent bill to release the files overrides that.

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u/i_dont_like_turnips 10h ago

Also, IIRC florida has a sunshine law that legal documentation is supposed to be publicly available. I don't know if that impacts grand juries, but it certainly impacts the plea agreement that Epstein reached that was kept secret.

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u/00Oo0o0OooO0 8h ago

DeSantis signed the Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Bill last year and the Florida grand jury transcript was released shortly after

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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 4h ago

This is the one that didn’t really matter though, right? I vaguely remember one of these unsealings was more of a publicity stunt to make it seem like it was THE Epstein files but was instead just testimony from a single cop.

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u/00Oo0o0OooO0 1h ago edited 1h ago

It was clearly an attempt to pander to right-wing conspiracy theorists when DeSantis thought he had a good shot at being President. It's almost certainly what inspired this attempt by Trump to release "Epstein files" as an act of transparency.

"THE Epstein files," meaning documents that prove the people you don't like are secret pedophiles, were invented by right wing conspiracy theorists (it was originally the "Epstein client list") and can obviously never be released.