Two federal judges sent a message to the Trump administration about its attempt to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell: Try again.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had filed unsealing motions on both the Epstein and Maxwell dockets amid the political backlash President Donald Trump has faced for his administration’s refusal to make public all Epstein-related materials as promised......

The orders sending Blanche back to the drawing board on Tuesday came from U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee who’s presiding over the Maxwell docket, and U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, a Clinton appointee who’s handling the Epstein docket. Both judges are in the Southern District of New York, where Maxwell and Epstein were charged. The orders are similarly worded; you can read the Maxwell one here and the Epstein one here.

Both orders say that the judges intend to resolve the unsealing motions “expeditiously” but that Blanche’s filings were inadequate. The judges gave the DOJ a week, until July 29, to file a more detailed memorandum making the case for unsealing.

Among other things, the judges said the DOJ has to say in the memorandum whether it reviewed the grand jury transcripts in question before making the requests and whether victims were notified.

The Trump administration just faced another legal setback in its effort to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Jeffrey Epstein, as a federal judge in Florida on Wednesday rejected the government’s bid to unseal Epstein-related transcripts from investigations in that state.

The rejection follows Tuesday’s orders from federal judges in New York that told the Justice Department its motions to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in that state were inadequate. The New York judges gave the DOJ a week to try again and said Maxwell, an Epstein representative and victims can also weigh in by Aug. 5......

The flurry of judicial activity comes amid unusual political backlash that President Donald Trump is attempting to fend off, as even some supporters have questioned his administration’s commitment to releasing the full scope of information related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while being held on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of trafficking-related crimes and is appealing her convictions to the Supreme Court. The Justice Department formally opposed her pending high court petition last week, and this week the DOJ announced it wants to meet with Maxwell, whom the House Oversight Committee separately has subpoenaed for a deposition in prison on Aug. 11. She currently has a release date in 2037......

In the Florida grand jury litigation, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg said in an order that her “hands are tied” when it comes to unsealing — a point that she said the government conceded in the litigation. The Obama-appointed judge said the government couldn’t justify the disclosure based on the federal criminal procedural rules and precedent in the federal circuit covering Florida. She noted that different precedent controls in the federal circuit covering New York.

So, while the Florida denial doesn’t mean the New York transcripts will necessarily stay sealed, whether they do depends on additional forthcoming filings and litigation there.