United States v. Epstein

United States v. Epstein (No. 1:19-cr-00490) was the federal criminal prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. A grand jury returned the indictment under seal on July 2, 2019; Epstein was arrested on July 6 and ordered detained on July 18 by Judge Richard M. Berman, and on August 10, 2019 he was found dead in the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Berman heard his accusers in open court before signing the government's nolle prosequi on August 29, 2019. No ruling on the validity of the 2007 Epstein non-prosecution agreement was ever made in the case. In 2025 the case reopened on the government's motions to unseal its grand jury record, which Berman denied in August and granted in December after the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law.¹²

Indictment and Detention

The two-count indictment charged violations of 18 U.S.C. 1591 and 1594. Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey while the indictment remained sealed. On July 8 Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman ordered it unsealed and the case was assigned to Berman. The prosecutors were Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex Rossmiller, Maurene Comey and Alison Moe, under U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who is not related to the judge. Epstein was represented by Martin Weinberg, Reid Weingarten and Marc Fernich, joined on July 17 by James Brochin, Michael Miller and Michael Scavelli.¹

On July 16 Moe filed a supplement to the government's detention memorandum disclosing that in late 2018, days after the Miami Herald began its series on the case, Epstein had wired 100,000 dollars and 250,000 dollars to two individuals named as potential co-conspirators in the 2007 agreement, identified as Individual-1 and Individual-2. On July 18 Berman granted the government's motion for remand and denied release (ECF No. 32). Epstein appealed (2d Cir. No. 19-2221); the appeal was withdrawn by stipulation and the mandate issued on August 21, 2019, so the detention order was never reviewed on the merits. Berman had set briefing on discovery and the non-prosecution agreement for September and October 2019 and on pretrial motions for early 2020. None of it was reached.¹³

Death and Dismissal

On July 23, 2019 Epstein was found in his cell with a cloth around his neck. On August 9 the Second Circuit unsealed about 2,000 pages of the Giuffre v. Maxwell record. He was found dead the next morning. On August 14 the court docketed a letter from the jail's warden, Lamine N'Diaye, reporting that Epstein "passed away Saturday, August 10, 2019, at around 7:37 a.m." Berman's reply of the same date asked: "One open question, among others, is whether the investigations referenced in your letter will include the incident at MCC involving Mr. Epstein on or about July 23, 2019. To my knowledge, it has never been definitively explained what the BOP concluded about that incident."¹⁴

The government moved for an order of nolle prosequi on August 19. Instead of granting it on the papers, Berman scheduled a public hearing, reasoning that "where, as here, a defendant has died before any judgment has been entered against him, the public may still have an informational interest in the process by which the prosecutor seeks dismissal of an indictment," and invited victims and their counsel to be heard. On August 12 his chambers had sent a letter that the U.S. Marshals Service routed to the U.S. Attorney's Office leadership; on August 26 Geoffrey Berman wrote to a colleague, "M, let me know if you have a report for today. We may have 30 victims tomorrow."¹⁵

At the hearing on August 27, 2019, Comey and Moe appeared for the government and Weingarten, Weinberg and Miller for the dead defendant, with an FBI special agent and an NYPD detective. Berman said that "Mr. Epstein's death obviously means that a trial in which he is a defendant cannot take place." The lawyer Gloria Allred read statements from three Jane Does, and other accusers spoke. Berman signed the nolle prosequi on August 29, 2019 (ECF No. 52).¹⁶

The 2025 Unsealing Motions

On July 18, 2025 Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche entered an appearance for the government in the closed case and moved to unseal the grand jury transcripts, "subject to appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information" (ECF Nos. 60, 61), the same day he filed a matching motion in United States v. Maxwell. Berman required further submissions, including an analysis of "how the Nolle Prosequi (ECF No. 52) filed in this case impacts proposed disclosure, with legal authorities." The estate's executors, through Daniel H. Weiner and Daniel Ruzumna (ECF No. 71), Annie Farmer's counsel Sigrid McCawley (ECF No. 72) and Bradley Edwards on Crime Victims' Rights Act grounds (ECF No. 73) filed positions.¹⁷

On August 20, 2025 Berman denied the motion (ECF No. 77). The record consisted of 70 pages of transcripts of June 18 and July 2, 2019 and exhibits comprising a PowerPoint presentation and four pages of call logs. He held that "the Government concedes that no Rule 6(e)(3) 'exceptions' to grand jury secrecy apply in this case" and that it "fails to demonstrate any 'special circumstance[]' which might justify unsealing." On August 26 he ordered briefing on an NBC News reporter's request to unseal two names redacted from Moe's July 2019 supplement.¹

After the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law on November 19, 2025, the government renewed its motion on November 24, and on December 10 Berman granted it (ECF No. 92): "The Court hereby grants the Government's motion in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and with the un[e]qivocal right of Epstein victims to have their identity and privacy protected." From January 15 to February 5, 2026 U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton sent him letters on the department's review and compliance.²