Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell stands at the podium to address Judge Alison Nathan during her sentencing in a courtroom sketch in New York City, U.S. June 28, 2022. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

• Summary

• Trump faces pressure over handling of Epstein documents
• Trump instructed AG to release Epstein, Maxwell materials
• Maxwell serving 20-year sentence for sex trafficking

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) -Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein who was convicted in 2021 of helping him sexually abuse teenage girls, said on Tuesday she opposed the U.S. government's bid to release transcripts of proceedings before the grand jury that indicted her.

In a court filing, Maxwell's lawyers said the release of the materials would jeopardize a potential re-trial if she succeeds in persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

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"The reputational harm from releasing incomplete, potentially misleading grand jury testimony, untested by cross-examination, would be severe and irrevocable," her lawyers wrote.

PresidentDonald Trump last month instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury material, as he sought to quell discontent from his base of conservative supporters and congressional Democrats over his administration's handling of documents from the cases.

Trump, a Republican, had promised to make public Epstein-related files if reelected and accused Democrats of covering up the truth. But in July, the Justice Department said a previously touted Epstein client list did not exist, angering Trump's supporters.

Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.

Grand juries meet in secret to guard against interference in criminal investigations, and records of their proceedings cannot be disclosed without a judge's permission.

The Justice Department has cited what it calls continuing public interest in the cases in asking Manhattan-based judges Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer to authorize the disclosure of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts. The judges asked lawyers for Maxwell, Epstein's estate, and the alleged victims to weigh in on the possible disclosure by Tuesday.

Lawyers for Epstein's estate said they took no position on whether the transcripts should be released.

A lawyer for Annie Farmer, who testified at Maxwell's trial that Maxwell and Epsteinabused her at Epstein's New Mexico ranch when she was 16, said disclosing the transcripts may provide additional details about people who facilitated Epstein's alleged abuse.

"The public has a legitimate interest in understanding the full scope of Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes," wrote the lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.

Bradley Edwards, a lawyer for several alleged victims of Epstein and Maxwell, wrote in a filing that any disclosure of grand jury material should shield the alleged victims' identities, and that their lawyers should be able to review the material before it is made public.

MAXWELL MEETS WITH DOJ

It is unclear whether the public would learn anything new or noteworthy if such material werereleased.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Justice Department said in a court filing that much of the testimony from law enforcement officers at Maxwell's grand jury proceedings in 2020 was corroborated by the victims and witnesses who testified publicly at her trial the following year.

Maxwell's lawyers have told theSupreme Court that her conviction was invalid because a non-prosecution and plea agreement that federal prosecutors had made with Epstein in Florida in 2007 also shielded his associates. The Court is due to consider whether to take up the appeal in late September.

Last month, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanchemet with Maxwell to see if she had any information about other people who may have committed crimes. Neither party has provided a detailed account of what they discussed. Maxwell last week was moved from a prison in Florida to a lower-security facility in Texas.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Nick Zieminski

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Thomson Reuters

Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.