Judge denies DOJ request to unseal Epstein grand jury files that include more names
A federal judge has denied the Justice Department’s motion to unseal grand jury materials related to the sex trafficking cases against dead trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime lover and convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a 31-page opinion and order on the motion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer shot down the motion, finding the documents do not contain “significant, undisclosed information about [their] crimes, or the investigation into them.”
He wrote that only two “features” of the grand jury evidence were noteworthy, summarizing them in his decision:
“First, the grand juries in this case were not used for investigative purposes,” he wrote. “They did not hear testimony from any firsthand witness to any event at issue. They did not hear testimony from any victim, eyewitness, suspect, or even a records custodian. The grand juries met instead for the quotidian purpose of returning an indictment.”
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The only witnesses were members of law enforcement, and each grand jury heard evidence only for one day, he wrote.
“Second, the evidence put before the Maxwell grand juries is today, with only very minor exceptions, a matter of public record,” Engelmayer continued. “The Government admitted as much.”
In addition to transcripts of grand jury testimony, the Justice Department also wanted to unseal additional evidence presented as exhibits to the grand jurors. They were expected to include more names than have been publicly associated with the latter in criminal and civil court proceedings.
But Engelmayer denied the government’s request for the exhibits, too.
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Read the judge’s decision:
“A member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials that the Government proposes to unseal would thus learn next to nothing new,” he wrote. “The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes.”
They also do not shed any new light on the origin of Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of his death, or “the path of the Government’s investigation,” he added.
The grand jury exhibits cannot be released without a court’s permission, but federal prosecutors asked to have them unsealed due to intense public interest across the country. Details about what relationship, if any, the named individuals may have had with Epstein or Maxwell were not immediately clear.
Prosecutors asked the court to give them until Thursday, Aug. 14, to notify anyone whose name would be unveiled.
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Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted at trial in 2021 of helping her former lover, Epstein, traffic teen girls.
She is appealing her conviction and has indicated in recent weeks that she is willing to sit for interviews with Congress and the Justice Department.
Epstein died in a federal jail cell in 2019 before he faced trial himself. His official cause of death has been ruled a suicide, a conclusion rejected by his brother.
Police blast ‘lax bail practices’ after brutal Cincinnati attack leaves six injured
Local police chiefs are sounding off after viral footage of a brutal Cincinnati assault shined new light on what local leaders are saying is a consistent failure regarding violent offenders being released onto the city’s streets.
In a statement released by the Hamilton County Association of Chiefs of Police on Aug. 8, the organization blasted local leaders for “gaps in the judicial process” within the local government.
“It is not enough to arrest violent offenders if they are swiftly released back into our neighborhoods due to lax bail practices or insufficient sentencing,” the statement said.
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The association vowed to host a roundtable discussion with local leaders within the next 30 days to address the community’s concerns regarding safety after the July 26 beatdown on the corner of Fourth and Elm streets left six injured and led to six arrests.
“The goal is to foster open, solution-focused dialogue around strengthening public safety while ensuring fairness and integrity across the entire justice process,” the statement said.
The update comes as police response time to the fight has been heavily criticized after Cincinnati Police Chief Theresa Theetge revealed only 11 officers were stationed downtown when the beatdown occurred.
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The city’s bail policies have also come under fire from Republican mayoral challenger Cory Bowman, who is looking to unseat incumbent Mayor Aftab Pureval, a Democrat, in the upcoming election.
“There are things from City Hall that are showing that the police are not supported the way they need to,” Bowman, Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother, told Fox News Digital. “They are unable to do their jobs because they’ve been told time and time again that they have to use restraint in certain things instead of enforcing the law. They’re told to dial back, and then what happens is that we have prosecutors and judges that have a catch-and-release system.”
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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While citywide data indicates crime throughout Cincinnati has remained on par with last year’s numbers, Bowman echoed the sentiments of the police department, blaming the city’s leadership for the reason police feel unsupported while carrying out their duties.
“So many officers have come to me, and they’ve said they don’t even see a point in making arrests because the criminals are just going to be back on the streets the very next day,” Bowman said. “We have to put pressure on all the judges and prosecutors, and we have to be able to let the officers know, ‘Do your job, see your training and do your job properly, and you’re going to have all of City Hall to back you up in that circumstance.”
On Friday, a grand jury indicted the six individuals arrested in connection with the violent assault that sent shockwaves through the community.
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Patrick Rosemond, 38, Jermaine Matthews, 39, Montianez Merriweather, 34, DeKyra Vernon, 24, Dominique Kittle, 37, and Aisha Devaughn, 25, are each charged with three counts of alleged felonious assault, three charges of assault and two charges of aggravated rioting, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Fox News Digital.
Merriweather was previously indicted just two weeks before the violent attack for allegedly receiving stolen property, weapons under disability, improper transportation of a firearm and other charges, according to the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Queen City Lodge #69.
The order also revealed that at the time of the beatdown, Merriweather was out of jail on $4,000 bond, though he only needed to post 10% – or $400 – to be released.
“This is your court system,” the FOP said in a social media post.
The association is looking to fellow leaders within Cincinnati’s government to provide further transparency surrounding bail laws as they look to keep violent offenders off the streets.
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“Just as law enforcement is held to high standards and evaluated on our daily practices, we must also understand the outcomes taking place in courtrooms and who is responsible for them,” the association said. “Let us be clear: we will not allow the dedication and sacrifice of our law enforcement professionals to be rendered meaningless by systemic failures or the absence of shared responsibility.”
Family confronts illegal immigrant killer as mother of five’s murder case concludes
For nearly two years, the family of Rachel Morin has carried the weight of unimaginable grief after the Maryland mother of five’s brutal murder at the hands of an illegal immigrant.
On Monday, her loved ones, including her mother, Patty Morin, will speak in court, seeking justice, closure and dignity while remembering the life she lived.
“I’m going to ask that the judge would honor Rachel’s life and preserve her dignity by giving her the justice that she deserves,” Patty Morin told “Fox & Friends” ahead of the sentencing.
She will soon undergo a monumental task, capturing her daughter’s life in a series of words that encompass her worth and the pain left behind in her absence.
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Morin told Lawrence Jones she had thought about what to say since the crime happened two years ago, writing notes and compiling nine drafts of her impact statement, none of which seemed adequate.
“When you get to the point where you actually sit down and write the statement, you don’t think it’s good enough… how can I put the value of her life, reduce it to ink and paper? And then how do I feel about this person and what he’s done to take that life away? And then I think about my grandchildren and her siblings and the pain that they’ve suffered. And how that, today, they’re going to be expressing their pain as well in statements…” she said.
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“It’s just going to be a really hard day. No way around it.”
Victor Antonio Martinez Hernandez, the illegal immigrant convicted of raping and murdering Morin in August 2023, will be sentenced on all counts, including first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree rape, third-degree sex offense and third-degree kidnapping.
Morin said she doesn’t know if she would want to hear from her daughter’s killer because she isn’t sure she would believe what he said if he spoke.
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Morin described her daughter as someone full of “energy” – outgoing, loving and happy.
“It’s just so odd to have someone that had so much life and energy and light, and now we’re at this end where it’s this darkness and death and just the void of that life in our lives…” she said.
AOL to pull plug on dial-up internet service after 34 years of operation
AOL, the company previously known formally as America Online, is discontinuing its Dial-up internet service after 34 years.
The service will shutter on September 30, meaning “the associated software, the AOL Dialer software and AOL Shield browser, which are optimized for older operating systems and dial-up internet connections, will be discontinued,” the web service provider said on its website.
“We are discontinuing the dial-up internet service component included in certain legacy AOL Advantage, CompuServe, and Netscape Connect Plans as we innovate to meet the needs of today’s digital landscape,” a spokesperson for Yahoo – which counts AOL among its brands – said in a statement to FOX Business.
“This change does not impact the numerous other valued products and services that these subscribers are able to access and enjoy as part of their plans. There is also no impact to our users’ free AOL email accounts,” the statement continued.
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According to Yahoo, very few customers were still using the dial-up service, as broadband connections have become the norm.
The company said AOL still maintains a strong customer base with traffic growing from year to year.
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AOL, known for its “You’ve got mail” greeting, buddy lists and instant messaging services, dominated U.S. households in the 1990s when it was the leading internet service provider. At the time, dial-up access was the norm, with users connecting to the internet from a home telephone line via a sometimes lengthy – and noisy – process.
Free trial discs were distributed to homes when the internet was gaining popularity. Users needed a home telephone line to utilize the service, and many still remember the high-pitched screeching it made while connecting.
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In 2000, AOL merged with Time Warner Inc. in a massive transaction that shook the telecommunications world. It eventually became an independent company again in 2009 before Verizon acquired it in 2015.
Verizon sold both AOL and Yahoo – both going under the Yahoo brand – to private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021.