Washington (TDI): The US Department of Justice has withheld records linked to Jeffrey Epstein that include allegations accusing US President Donald Trump of sexually abusing a minor, and has also removed other related material from a public archive, according to a report by National Public Radio.
NPR reported that dozens of documents listed by the Justice Department, including more than 50 pages of FBI interview notes with a woman who accused Trump of sexual assault decades ago, have not been released, despite legal requirements mandating public disclosure.
The Justice Department declined to respond directly to NPR’s detailed questions, saying only that unreleased material is either privileged, duplicative, or connected to an ongoing federal investigation, NPR reported.
Following publication of the report, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said his staff had verified the discrepancy.
Representative Robert Garcia said in a statement that Oversight Committee Democrats believe the DOJ may have unlawfully withheld FBI interviews with a survivor who accused Trump of serious crimes. He announced that lawmakers would launch a separate investigation into how the documents were handled.
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The White House rejected the allegations. In comments to NPR, a spokeswoman said Trump has been “fully exonerated” in all matters related to Epstein and claimed he has done more than any previous president to support Epstein’s victims by releasing records and cooperating with congressional inquiries.
One allegation referenced in internal FBI material involves a woman who said that in the early 1980s, when she was about 13 years old, Epstein introduced her to Trump. She alleged that Trump assaulted her and later struck her and forced her out when she resisted.
NPR found that while this allegation appears in an internal FBI index and presentation, the related FBI interview records are missing from the public database. Court logs from the criminal case against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell show the FBI interviewed the woman four times. Only the first interview, which does not mention Trump, has been made public.
In that interview, the woman’s attorney told the FBI that a photograph she submitted had been cropped out of concern about implicating well-known individuals, citing fear of retaliation. Agents noted the image was a widely circulated photograph of Epstein with Trump.
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Other withheld or removed documents relate to a key witness in Maxwell’s trial, which resulted in her receiving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. That witness told the FBI she met Trump as a minor at his Mar-a-Lago club while she was being abused by Epstein. She said Epstein introduced her to Trump and made a remark about her appearance, prompting laughter from both men.
According to NPR, the FBI interview containing that account was briefly removed from the public database before later being restored. However, an interview with the witness’s mother, which also references Trump, remains unavailable.
