A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday declined the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from a probe into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“The Court’s hands are tied — a point that the government concedes,” wrote U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg.

The Justice Department last week asked Rosenberg to release the documents stemming from federal investigations in Florida in 2005 and 2007, court papers show.

The request cited “extensive public interest” in Epstein’s case since the agency made public its determination that Epstein did not have a “client list” and died by suicide in a New York City prison in 2019 while awaiting trial — findings that have infuriated some of Trump’s most fervent supporters.

The decision thwarts Trump’s efforts to tamp down criticism from his political base for now but does........

© The Hill