Washington DC: A U.S. judge has rejected a request to unseal grand jury materials from the investigation into the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Robin Rosenberg ruled that releasing the files from Epstein’s Florida case would violate state law.

The request to unseal the documents was made last week amid growing criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein case files.

The ruling came as the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump is among hundreds of individuals named in Epstein-related investigative documents held by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In response, a White House spokesperson dismissed the report, calling it “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”