A New York Judge has dismissed RadarOnline.com's lawsuit to force the FBI to release secret documents related to its sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Knewz.com reports that United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe ruled on Tuesday that public disclosure of the files, which had remained hidden since Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, could interfere with a potential retrial of his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maurene Comey, the lead prosecutor against Maxwell from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told the court the disclosure would impact witness testimony, prejudice the jury pool “so as to hinder the government’s ability to present its case in court,” and provide Maxwell with greater access “to the investigatory files than she would otherwise have during the criminal discovery process.”
"This court concludes that (the FBI) provides sufficient details for the Court to trace a rational link between the information contained in the records and the potential interference with law enforcement proceedings, and the FBI has thus met its burden for withholding disclosure of the records," the Southern District of New York judge said in his ruling.
Gardephe's ruling brings an end to a seven-year saga that began when RadarOnline.com filed a freedom of information lawsuit against the FBI in 2017, although a lawyer for RadarOnline.com told Knewz.com that the outlet was considering whether to appeal the decision and vowed to "continue to fight for transparency and accountability."
“The FBI is covering its tracks by using a hypothetical retrial of Ghislaine Maxwell as justification not to release its Epstein files,” First Amendment attorney Dan Novack, who represents RadarOnline.com in the lawsuit, told Knewz.com in an exclusive statement. He said the FBI insisted "these are simply the kinds of documents that would tend to cause harm if released, without engaging the reality on the ground that the target of the investigation has seen millions of records and was convicted in one of the most high-profile trials in U.S. history.”
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In previous filings, the FBI admitted the documents in their possession, of which only a "small fraction" had ever been made public, included evidentiary and investigative materials such as “copies of records or evidence, analysis of that evidence, and derivative communications summarizing or otherwise referencing evidence.”
Other material included “internal communications among investigators within the FBI providing updates regarding the status of the investigation, including witness interviews and discussions of evidence gathered during the investigation” and “communications between the FBI and other government agencies regarding the investigation.”
