(NewsNation) — The Justice Department has asked two federal judges to release grand jury exhibits related to the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.
In a filing Friday, the department says in addition to its request to unseal grand jury testimony in both cases, it also wants exhibits with “appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton signed the filing.
The Justice Department said it has started contacting victims from the investigations whose names appear in grand jury exhibits but not in transcripts, according to the filing.
The department also stated that it is notifying parties of the extent that their names appear in grand jury materials that were not publicly admitted during Maxwell’s trial.
The Justice Department requested the judges hold off on any decisions on unsealing until it hears back from parties they’ve contacted.
The Epstein case has been subject to heightened public focus since the Justice Department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case, despite assurances from Bondi. Trump has been under fire by his own party over allegations of a cover-up of his involvement with Epstein.
Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation.
The Trump administration had sought to unseal grand jury transcripts, though that has been denied by Judge Robin Rosenberg in Florida. Rosenberg said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
A similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York under Judge Richard Berman.
Friday’s letter was addressed to both Rosenberg and Berman.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.