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Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

One of the Trump administration’s dumbest gambles to deflect the Epstein-files backlash is already beginning to flop. Soon after The Wall Street Journal’s birthday-letter bombshell dropped last Thursday, Donald Trump announced he had instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce sealed grand-jury transcripts from the federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. A day later, the Justice Department officially asked federal courts in Florida and New York to unseal the grand-jury files for the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, citing reasons such as “extensive public interest” as part of their rationale. Legal experts like Elie Honig quickly dismissed the effort, explaining it was performative and would almost certainly produce little if any new information. Less than a week later, one of the requests has already been denied.

U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg said in a 12-page ruling on Wednesday that she couldn’t grant the DOJ’s request, citing grand-jury secrecy rules mandated by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Politico notes:

The Justice Department filed an unsealing request in Florida because two federal grand juries were convened in West Palm Beach in 2005 and 2007 to investigate Epstein’s actions. Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in New York on sex trafficking charges, never faced federal charges in Florida. In 2007, he struck a deal with federal and state prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty in state court to two felony soliciting charges, including procuring a minor to engage in prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

DOJ acknowledged its request to unseal materials in Florida likely would violate the court’s longstanding precedent but encouraged Rosenberg to consider it because of the “significance of the matter.”

She was not persuaded.

Federal judges in New York, who are reviewing the Justice Department’s other requests to unseal grand-jury testimonies in the Epstein and Maxwell cases, have asked for more information from the various involved parties. Politico reports that their decision may not come for weeks.

Trump’s Grand-Jury Gambit for More Epstein Files Is Already Failing

Trump’s Grand-Jury Gambit for More Epstein Files Is Already Failing