The Justice Department has broadened its request for grand jury materials tied toJeffrey EpsteinandGhislaine Maxwell, but it still wants to shield "personal identifying information," which could mean protecting anyone else from being tied to the convicted sex offenders. The department wants a court to unseal not just the transcripts that will show not only thetestimony of two law enforcement witnesses before grand juriesthat indicted Epstein and Maxwell, but also the exhibits that were part of those proceedings. Court exhibits are items of evidence, such as photos, videos, or documents. The department made its position clearin an Aug. 8 filingto a Manhattan federal court, which is considering whether to release sealed materials from the grand jury process that led to federal indictments against Epstein and Maxwell from 2019 to 2020. While the department is going farther than it did in its previous effort to release just the grand jury transcripts, this new request appears to fall short of what at least some victims want. "Any effort to redact third party names smacks of a cover up," victim Annie Farmer said through her lawyer inan Aug. 5 letter to the court. Farmer testified for the prosecution in Maxwell's 2021 criminal trial. "To the extent any of Epstein's and Maxwell's enablers and coconspirators who have thus far evaded accountability are implicated by the grand jury transcripts, their identities should not be shielded from the public," Farmer's lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, added. She argued that identifying information for victims, by contrast, should be redacted. More:Trump administration won't release the Epstein files, but what would they contain? The Justice Department didn't make its latest request unprompted. The judges handling the requests for unsealed transcripts, Judge Richard Berman for the Epstein transcripts andJudge Paul Engelmayer for the Maxwell transcripts, instructed department lawyers to specify their positions on releasing the exhibits. The department said it still needs to notify everyone whose name appears in the exhibits and asked to have until Aug. 14 to update the judges on that process. The department has pointed to the potential release of grand jury materials and July 24 and 25 interviews it conducted with Maxwell as it seeks to quellpublic outrageover its decisionnot to release the government's full investigative files on Epstein. Already,a Florida federal judge ruled July 23that grand jury materials tied to a federal investigation of Epstein in that state around 2006 must remain sealed. The Justice Department hasn't yet released any details from its interview with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after beingconvicted in 2021 of sex trafficking a minor to Epstein, her ex-boyfriend. Epstein died in a Manhattan federal jail in 2019as he awaited his own trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He wasconvicted in 2008 of two Florida state prostitution offenses, including one that involved minors. A lawyer for a victim identified as "Jane Doe" in Maxwell's criminal case, Robert Glassman,wrote separately to the courtthat he and his client supported Farmer's call for greater transparency for third parties associated with Epstein and Maxwell. Multiple other victims want public disclosure of not just grand jury transcripts, but also "all Epstein-related information and documents in the possession and control of law enforcement, prosecutorial and other government agents,"according to a letter from their lawyer, John Scarola, to the court. That includes complete transcripts of Maxwell's July 24 through July 25 interview, Scarola said. Another unnamed person who is self-described ina letter to the courtas "a victim of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell" accused the government of "scrubbing the data" and asked that "the true redactions that come first are only for the victims." A letter from Bradley Edwardsand other lawyers who represent multiple Epstein accusers urged the court to set up procedures to ensure any disclosure of grand jury materials is narrow and that victims' lawyers are included in the process of redacting victim-related information. In one letter to the court, a lawyer for third parties whose names are redacted fromthe public version of the letterurged the court not to disclose grand jury materials that would identify his clients. "There is no question that the interests in the privacy and secrecy of innocent third parties ... significantly outweigh any historical interest that the public has in reviewing these materials," wrote Neil Binder. Binder wrote that the court should keep the grand jury transcripts under seal, or otherwise block out not just third-party names, but also "any other personal identifying information and any surrounding context by which the public may be able to deduce the identities of the individuals being discussed." President Donald Trumphas repeatedly expressed concern about third parties if the government releases Epstein-related materials. But on the campaign trail, he alsofanned the flames of conspiracy theoriesabout whether Epstein may have been killed in jail, and many in his circle called for transparency. New York's chief medical examinerruled in 2019 that Epstein died by suicide. Trump was friends with Epstein for many years, until around 2004. He was reportedly told in May that he wasnamed multiple times in the government's files on Epstein. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:DOJ wants only redacted Epstein, Maxwell grand jury exhibits released