The records are at the center of President Trump’s effort to manage fallout from the Epstein case. But unsealing them is complex and requires a judge to sign off.

The Justice Department's filing came not long after Trump filed a libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch and others over the Thursday report about Trump's alleged birthday message sent to Epstein in 2003.

Those factors, applied to the Epstein saga, appear muddled at best. Trump has called for “pertinent” grand jury records to come out. And one of the arguments DOJ previously made against disclosures was that it could damage the purported victims of Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking conspiracy, many of whom are still alive.