WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s public database of the Epstein files contains an allegation President Donald Trump abused a minor decades ago, but documents from an apparent FBI investigation into the allegation are not public despite a law mandating their disclosure.
A compilation of accusations against prominent names, a document the Justice Department assembled last summer from its investigatory files on Jeffrey Epstein, included one from an unidentified accuser who claimed: “Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said he reviewed unredacted Epstein files this week at a facility the Justice Department set up for members of Congress. He said Tuesday that FBI forms recounting interviews with the Trump accuser have been left out of the public database.
“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes,” Garcia said in a statement. “Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover up.”
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), another member of the Oversight Committee, said she also reviewed some of the unredacted Epstein files on Monday and saw documents reflecting the FBI following up on tips about an accusation against Trump.
“It’s clear that the FBI investigated this case and found it to be a credible case,” Stansbury told HuffPost. “I can tell you unequivocally the FBI investigated it.”
Asked for comment, the Justice Department referred to a social media post responding to Democrats, insisting nothing has been improperly withheld.
“If files are temporarily pulled for victim redactions or to redact Personally Identifiable Information, then those documents are promptly restored online and are publicly available,” the department said in its post. “ALL responsive documents have been produced unless a document falls within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.”
Members of Congress have already complained about the Trump administration withholding some of its Epstein material, contrary to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed both chambers of Congress last fall. The department withholding information about the president would be a significant development.
A story from National Public Radio on Tuesday, building on earlier work by the independent journalist Roger Sollenberger, laid out the public evidence that certain documents are missing.
The news outlets reported that the Trump accusation in the summary file matches an FBI tip intake form, from when the Justice Department was pressing sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019, that was included in the disclosed files. The form indicated the incident supposedly happened around 35 years ago in New Jersey, when the victim would have been 13 or 14. Biographical details of the accuser, said to have lived in South Carolina, match those of an unnamed Epstein accuser from that state who joined a civil lawsuit against the estate of the deceased sex trafficker and financier in 2019.
“Jane Doe 4 was brutally and forcibly battered, assaulted, and raped by these other men she met through Epstein,” that complaint said. “On one occasion, one of these prominent men forcibly slapped Jane Doe 4 in the face after she was forced to perform oral sex on him. This same man forcibly raped her, penetrating her both vaginally and anally. On information and belief, Epstein was aware of and, indeed encouraged, the assault of Jane Doe 4 by these other men.”
Jane Doe 4’s account in the civil complaint of how she met Epstein matches an FBI summary of a 2019 interview with an Epstein victim. As Sollenberger first noted, a serial number on the interview summary shows up in a spreadsheet of witness material from the trial of Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. That spreadsheet indicates the FBI interviewed the witness three additional times, and provided the documents to Maxwell’s defense team.
There were no documents with the relevant serial numbers available in the Epstein library database when HuffPost searched on Tuesday, even though the numbers are listed in the spreadsheet. NPR reported “dozens” of other evidence documents are missing from the public database.
The Justice Department has insisted it has fully complied with a law, passed by overwhelming margins in Congress last year, requiring the release of the files, though Democrats and a handful of Republicans led by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have argued the DOJ is not complying with the law. Massie told reporters he hadn’t looked at the Trump accusation.
“I’ve got a lot of other ones I’m looking into,” Massie said.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) called it a serious accusation, but suggested it’s possible Democrats are misinterpreting the files, pointing to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) listing names of men he mistakenly believed were Epstein co-conspirators.
“We take it seriously. We’ll look and see,” Comer told HuffPost. “I haven’t seen a lot out of some of the Democrats on the Oversight Committee that would lead me to believe they’re tremendous investigators.”