NEW YORK (AP) — In a significant ruling, a federal judge announced on Tuesday that the Justice Department is authorized to publicly release investigative materials from the high-profile sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, who is infamously known as a close associate of the late Jeffrey Epstein. Judge Paul A. Engelmayer's decision came after the Justice Department requested the unsealing of numerous grand jury transcripts and exhibits connected to both Maxwell and Epstein's cases. The newly accessible documents could include hundreds, if not thousands, of previously unreleased materials. This ruling arrives in the wake of the recently enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act, which stipulates that records related to Epstein must be made available to the public in a searchable format by December 19, indicating that these records may potentially become public within the next ten days.