Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis detailed new legislation releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s grand jury documents on Friday, claiming Epstein’s business partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, couldn’t be the only one responsible.
DeSantis appeared on “Hannity” to discuss the signing of a bill which will allow the release of documents from a 2006 grand jury investigation into Epstein. Fox host Sean Hannity applauded the Florida governor for his decision and noted the secrecy behind Epstein’s plea deal with the federal government. (RELATED: DeSantis Set To Approve Release Of Epstein Grand Jury Docs)
DeSantis stated that while there were various people who attempted to get the documents released, they were not able to be released due to “grand jury secrecy laws.” The Florida governor continued to note that with the coming release of the documents, victims of Epstein will be able to get the justice “they never got.”
“Unbelievable what happened. And, you know, this was involved in federal jurisdiction at the time, and the feds worked to engineer this plea deal with the prosecutor in Palm Beach County. And this happened 15 or 20 years ago. When I became governor we launched a criminal investigation into exactly what happened. How did he get this sweetheart deal? But what we ran into was grand jury secrecy laws and that is true in Florida — if you testify in front of a grand jury in secret, it’s got to be kept secret — and then people tried to petition to get it released under some of the exceptions and all those court cases failed. So the Florida legislature passed legislation now which authorizes the release of all those grand jury files. And so I signed it into law this week. That law will become effective on July 1st. Finally the public is going to be able to get answers,” DeSantis stated.
“But we had a few of the — they’re now women, they’re in their 30s — but they were teenagers, a lot of them I think were 14 at the time. And his has been something that has stayed with them for decades and they never got any justice. And so now we’re going to get more facts. And how is it, Sean, when you have so many people involved, you have one person now, Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s in federal prison? Nobody else has been held accountable since Epstein’s death. And I think everybody knows that is not right and there’s no way that no body else was involved in this criminal activity.”
The bill, introduced by Democratic Boca Raton Senator Tina Polsky, passed in the Senate with a unanimous vote of 37-0 on Feb. 21. DeSantis indicated his support of the legislation, stated online that “all files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activity should be made public.”
Following a 2006 criminal investigation by Florida federal prosecutors accused Epstein of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, he received a sentence of one year. During the investigation only one of Epstein’s accusers was brought forward to testify in front of the grand jury, drawing concerns about the fairness of the case.
Epstein was arrested and charged in 2019 with sex trafficking; he was found dead in his New York Metropolitan Correctional Center cell a month after his arrest.
Since Epstein’s death, Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime partner, was the only one charged and sentenced in connection to Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Maxwell was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years for her involvement in Epstein’s crimes in June 2022.
While redactions and other restrictions may remain in effect, the release of the grand jury documents are a major move towards transparency.