Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday he will publicly release the grand jury testimony in Jeffrey Epstein’s 2006 sexual abuse case.
DeSantis held a news conference at the Palm Beach Police Department, where he signed a bill passed by the state Legislature last week authorizing the release.
Grand jury proceedings are usually shrouded in secrecy, but the intense public interest escalated when Epstein was exposed as a serial sexual predator and his prosecution in Palm Beach County came under scrutiny.
“There were a lot of questions about what happened where you had a sweetheart deal,” DeSantis said. “The reality is the investigation was stymied because you didn’t have access of the grand jury materials. I agree there needs to be a mechanism in these rare circumstances where people should be able to get the truth so we can pursue justice.”
Two of Epstein’s victims, Haley Robson and Jena-Lisa Cordovez, attended the signing and said they were thankful for this action.
“This is not something we should be forgetting about. This is not something to be sweeping under the rug,” Robson said. “A lot of us are still in therapy. We’re still trying to survive. I can’t express the gratitude I have for this bill. I never thought this would be in our cards.”
DeSantis said he’d be wiling to consider releasing sealed records in other cases where victims may have been denied justice, such as victims of sexual abuse from the Catholic Church. “I’m open to being able to to institute policies that are going to try to right a wrong,” he said, adding the Epstein case was “not handled in a way that justice required.”
The information is scheduled to be released July 1, although Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Joseph Abruzzo had said he had hoped it would be sooner.
“How did he get such a sweetheart deal?” Abruzzo asked earlier in February. “There are so many unanswered questions about what happened. Making these records public is a…
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