A federal judge in New York has granted the justice department’s request to unseal grand jury documents in the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell – the companion and accomplice of the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. It comes after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Donald Trump signed last month.

The legislation requires the Department of Justice to release the full tranche of records related to disgraced financier, in a searchable format by 19 December.

In his order today, judge Paul A Engelmayer cited the recently passed bill, and granted the DoJ’s request to release discovery material – which could comprise thousands of documents and exhibits. However, Engelmayer stipulated that the justice department would still be required to abide by a protective order to “withhold or redact segregable portions that contain personally identifiable and other victim-related information”.

A reminder that Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes in a minimum security facility in Texas. In October, the supreme court rejected her petition to overturn her conviction.

My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the latest out of Europe on our dedicated live blog today. In his interview with Politico, Donald Trump dismissed EU leaders as “weak” and labelled Europe as a “decaying group of nations”.

Trump also said he didn’t have much hopes about European involvement in Ukraine peace talks, as “they talk, but they...