A Florida federal judge shot down the Trump administration’s bid Wednesday to release grand jury transcripts from an investigation that ended in notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein taking a much-criticized plea deal in 2008.

West Palm Beach US District Judge Robin Rosenberg wrote in a 12-page ruling that “the Court’s hands are tied” because the request by the government to release the transcripts was not tied to an ongoing trial.

The Justice Department had filed a petition Friday requesting transcripts from proceedings of federal grand juries that were convened in South Florida in 2005 and 2007 to investigate Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The Florida proceedings ended with Epstein pleading guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and procurement of minors for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but only served 13 — the majority of that time on work release. 

Epstein was also required to register as a sex offender as part of the deal. 

The DOJ motion came as pressure mounts on President Trump and his top officials to shed more light on Epstein and those in his orbit, and the government filed similar requests in Manhattan federal court Friday to unseal grand jury proceedings against Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. A ruling on those requests is still pending. 

On July 6, the FBI and Justice Department released a joint memo concluding that Epstein committed suicide in his cell and did not keep a “client list” of wealthy and powerful friends who indulged in illicit sex with girls as young as 14 — contrary to widespread speculation and theorizing. 

The Trump administration argued in its filing last week that “intense public scrutiny” should force the unsealing of the transcripts — in contrast to the DOJ/FBI memo that stated further disclosures weren’t needed.

“The public’s strong interest in th[e] historical investigation into Jeffrey Epstein constitutes a special circumstance justifying public disclosure,” the government argued, only for Rosenberg to disagree.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in Florida after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. 

Also Wednesday, a Manhattan federal judge blocked Maxwell’s bid to force the release of grand jury testimony in her case.  

“It is black-letter law that defendants generally are not entitled to access to grand jury materials,” US District Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in his order, adding that there was “no justification” to make an exception for Maxwell.

Trump, 79, has tried to downplay the ongoing Epstein saga, claiming that even his own supporters interested in learning more about the predator were helping Democrats perpetuate a “hoax.”

The president was friendly with Epstein in the 1990s, but the two reportedly fell out in the mid-2000s amid a bidding war over since-demolished Palm Beach mansion.

There is no evidence Trump was aware of Epstein’s criminal activity before the Florida criminal investigation and the president has made clear he never visited the pedophile’s private island, where girls and young women were sexually abused.