A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s first attempt to unseal portions of the Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records, marking the first rejection of attempts by the Trump administration to appease public outrage over the “Epstein files.”

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in Florida rejected the Department of Justice’s arguments surrounding records from federal investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. The documents are only a small part of the large tranche of information contained within the Epstein files.

The judge ruled that the department’s request met none of the strict legal standards required to breach grand jury secrecy in the state, citing “Rule 6” from the Eleventh Circuit Court.

“The Government does not assert that disclosure is appropriate under any exception in Rule 6,” Justice Rosenberg writes. “Instead, it argues that special circumstances exist and that the policy reasons for grand jury secrecy have expired. However, the Government’s stated rationale are not exceptions in Rule 6.”

“This court has already determined that the disclosure sought in this case would not be proper under clear Eleventh Circuit law,” the judge also writes in her ruling, “the government has effectively conceded that the Court’s hands are tied.”

Justice department lawyers are simultaneously pushing Manhattan federal judges to unseal transcripts from separate criminal cases that targeted Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in that state.

The Department of Justice’s botched release of the “Epstein files” — as well as recent statements by department and FBI officials that a review determined no client list existed and that Epstein had died by suicide — has created a political firestorm that has dogged the president for weeks.

Congressional Democrats last week prepared legislative measures to force the release of investigative documents. On Friday, the justice department asked a Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury testimony from the 2019 investigation that resulted in his arrest.

A new report Wednesday from the Wall Street Journal suggests that DOJ officials discovered Mr. Trump’s name multiple times in what was described as “a truckload of documents” related to the Epstein case.

Attorney General Bondi and her deputy informed the president of his connection to the case files during a meeting at the White House in May, according to the Journal. Mr. Trump reportedly learned he was among numerous high-profile figures mentioned in the records.

The inclusion of his name in the documents doesn’t indicate any criminal activity or misconduct on his behalf, but officials told the president, who had socialized with Epstein in the past, that the documents contained hearsay about numerous individuals, including himself.

Mr. Trump allegedly said during the meeting that he would defer to the DOJ’s decision to not release more files.