Withheld Epstein Files Referencing Trump Released by Justice Department

 

The U.S. Department of Justice has released previously withheld documents connected to the investigation of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including records that reference allegations made against former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The documents include summaries of interviews conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 with a woman who made claims of sexual assault against both Epstein and Trump. According to the files, the allegations were not substantiated and remain unverified.

The release of the documents follows reports that several files were missing from the Justice Department’s online database, leading some Democratic lawmakers to accuse officials of withholding information. In response, the Justice Department stated that the files had been mistakenly excluded during the review process because they were incorrectly classified as duplicate records.

According to one of the interview summaries, the unnamed woman told FBI agents that she was introduced to Trump by Epstein in the 1980s when she was still a teenager. She alleged that both men sexually assaulted her when she was between the ages of 13 and 15.

However, the documents indicate that investigators did not obtain corroborating evidence to support the claims. The FBI also had no further contact with the woman after the interviews, according to the records.

It remains unclear whether Trump and Epstein knew each other during the time period when the alleged incidents were said to have occurred.

In response to the newly released files, the White House dismissed the allegations as baseless. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the claims lacked credible evidence and emphasized that Trump had consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“These accusations are completely baseless and backed by zero credible evidence,” Leavitt said in a statement. She also noted that the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden did not bring charges against Trump related to the allegations.

Trump’s name appears numerous times in the broader collection of Epstein-related files released by the Justice Department. Some references appear in emails and communications sent by Epstein to various individuals.

Despite those references, none of the known survivors who have publicly accused Epstein of abuse have formally accused Trump of committing a crime.

The documents also include a list of allegations submitted through the FBI’s national Threat Operation Center tip line. These reports contain claims involving several high-profile individuals, including Trump and Epstein. Officials note that many of these tips are unverified and lack supporting evidence.

Earlier releases of the Epstein files also contained claims that officials described as false or sensationalized. The Justice Department previously stated that some allegations had been submitted to the FBI shortly before the 2020 U.S. presidential election and were determined to be unfounded.

The newly released memos were reportedly missing from the initial batch of documents made public earlier this year. U.S. media outlets including NPR and The New York Times reported that indexing in the files suggested four interviews had been conducted with the woman in 2019 as part of the investigation into Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell was convicted in 2022 of sex trafficking and sentenced to prison for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls.

The case involving Epstein has remained a major focus of public attention in the United States. Epstein died in 2019 while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Political scrutiny over the handling of the Epstein files continues. Members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee recently voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Justice Department’s management and release of the documents.

Lawmakers from both major political parties supported the subpoena, highlighting bipartisan concern about transparency in the handling of the Epstein investigation records.

Last year, the United States Congress passed legislation requiring the Justice Department to release materials related to its investigations into Epstein. Since then, millions of pages of documents have been made public as part of the ongoing disclosure process.