The Justice Department asked a federal judge Friday to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as President Donald Trump seeks to dispel a storm of criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters.

The request was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Epstein was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges six years ago when he was found dead by hanging in his jail cell about a month after he was arrested. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a suicide.

The government also sought the unsealing of grand jury testimony from the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite who in a 2021 trial was convicted of helping Epstein facilitate his sex-trafficking scheme and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction.

“Public officials, lawmakers, pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, wrote in a motion to the court seeking to unseal the transcripts. “The time for the public to guess what they contain should end.”

Bondi and Blanche referred in the motion to Epstein as “the most infamous pedophile in American history,” and called the facts of the case “a tale of national disgrace.”The filings Friday followed Trump’s announcement in a social media post Thursday night that he had authorized Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”

Records usually secret

Obtaining court approval for unsealing the testimony could be difficult because the records are shielded by grand jury secrecy, to protect crime victims and witnesses. Judges rarely agree to grant public access to such materials.

In their motion, Bondi and Blanche said the Justice Department would work with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Epstein and Maxwell, to make “appropriate redactions” of information related to victims and “other personal identifying information” before releasing the transcripts.

“Transparency in this process will not be at the expense of our obligation under the law to protect victims,” the officials said in the motion.

The unsealing effort could take months, and the materials being sought are most likely only a small part of the evidence collected in the investigation.

Earlier release denials

Trump has been under intense pressure after Bondi withheld portions of investigative files related to Epstein that some of the president’s most fervent supporters have demanded be made public.

Bondi agreed to release some materials, including flight logs for Epstein’s private jets that were already publicly available, but she held back others, including what administration officials described as material involving child sexual abuse.

The Justice Department’s review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the department wrote in an unsigned July memo. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

In the filing Friday, the Justice Department said it was adhering to those conclusions.

But the backlash has been intense. Portions of Trump’s political base have turned on him, and Democrats, eager for an issue to rally around, have called for the administration to release what have come to be known as the Epstein files.

By directing Bondi to make the court filings public, Trump is moving to shift the responsibility for releasing more of the material onto a federal judge, which could lessen the political pressure he is feeling.

Democrats have cast the Trump administration’s move as an attempt to distract the attention of those who have been criticizing the president.

“What about videos, photographs and other recordings?” Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, a former Southern District prosecutor, wrote on the social platform X.

“What about FBI 302’s (witness interviews)?” he continued. “What about texts and emails? That’s where the evidence about Trump and others will be. Grand jury testimony will only relate to Epstein and Maxwell.”

Wall Street Journal suit

Trump filed a $10 million lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch Friday, a day after the newspaper published a story reporting on his ties to Epstein.

Trump had promised the lawsuit after thet Journal put the spotlight on his relationship with Epstein, publishing an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denies writing the letter, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”

In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump cast the lawsuit as part of his efforts to punish news outlets, including ABC and CBS, which both reached multimillion-dollar settlement deals with the president after he took them to court.

“This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, responded Friday night, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”

The letter revealed by The Wall Street Journal was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before the wealthy financier was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump.

The letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper.

Trump denied writing the letter and promised to sue. He said he spoke to both to the paper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, and its top editor, Emma Tucker, before the story was published and told them the letter was “fake.”

This report includes information from the Associated Press.