A federal judge in New York on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s effort to make public sealed grand jury materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. In a 31-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said the Justice Department failed to show the “special circumstances” required to breach grand-jury secrecy. He wrote that releasing the transcripts—comprised only of summary testimony by two law-enforcement agents—would offer the public “next to nothing new” and called the government’s assertion that the files held significant revelations “demonstrably false.” Engelmayer added that the move appeared aimed at creating the “illusion” of transparency rather than adding substance and warned that overriding the traditional secrecy of grand-jury proceedings without compelling reason would undermine the system. The Justice Department, acting at President Donald Trump’s direction, had asked courts in New York and Florida on July 18 to unseal grand-jury records from the Epstein and Maxwell investigations amid political pressure to release the so-called “Epstein files.” A Florida judge turned down a parallel request last month, and a second New York judge is still weighing whether to release materials in Epstein’s case. Maxwell, convicted in 2021 of trafficking teenage girls for Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence and is pursuing appeals. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. Monday’s decision leaves the grand-jury records—including indictments returned in 2020 and 2021—under seal for now.