Judge rules Ghislaine Maxwell grand jury records can be unsealed

A federal judge has ruled the US Department of Justice can publicly release grand jury materials from Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking investigation.

US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said he was ordering the release of material because of a recent law passed by Congress, which requires the justice department to publish files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by the end of next week.

In his ruling, he said the court would put in place mechanisms to protect victims from the release of materials that would "identify them or otherwise invade their privacy".

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in luring underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to exploit. Epstein died in prison in 2019.

The latest order to release grand jury material came after the passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which US President Donald Trump signed in November.

It followed a similar ruling from a judge in Florida on Friday, which allowed for the unsealing of documents related to an investigation against Epstein that began in 2005.