Appeals court orders unsealing of the Jeffrey Epstein files

More than a decade ago, a federal prosecutor named Alexander Acosta set up a secret sweetheart deal for Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy, Trump-connected admitted multiple rapist of underaged teen girls who was thought to be running a trafficking ring for wealthy, well-connected sexual predators, that saw Epstein serving only 13 months in a minimum security facility, on a work-release program that let him spend most of that time out of a cell.

Today, Alexander Acosta is Trump's Secretary of Labor, and, as documents later revealed, his actions ensured that the details of Epstein's sentence were hidden from the public; Epstein has used expensive legal tactics to keep those details out of the public eye. More than a decade later, the powerful, wealthy people who protected Epstein are still on the job, and Trump's DoJ is working overtime to make sure the dozens of women who say they were raped by Epstein when they were girls will not be able to seek justice.

But the secrecy might finally be ending: last week, the Second Circuit appeals court ruled that 2,000 pages of previously sealed files implicating Epstein should be released to the press, overturning US District Judge Robert Sweet's decision to keep the files a secret because they would "promote scandal arising out of unproven potentially libelous statements."

The files that will be unsealed come from a civil case pursued against one of Epstein's associates by someone who claims she was trafficked for sex by Epstein and his circle.

Todays ruling kicks off a lengthy process for unsealing the files.