Attorney General Pam Bondi 's top deputy, Todd Blanche, submitted the motion to unseal the Epstein transcripts, as well as those in the case against convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, just one day after President Donald Trump publicly directed the department to take that step, Newsweek previously reported.

The Justice Department's July 18 motion to release Epstein grand jury transcripts followed a request Trump made to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Those factors, applied to the Epstein saga, appear muddled at best. Trump has called for “pertinent” grand jury records to come out. And one of the arguments DOJ previously made against disclosures was that it could damage the purported victims of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking conspiracy, many of whom are still alive.