Democratic lawmakers on the House oversight and government reform committee said on Tuesday they would be investigating whether the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withheld material about an abuse accusation against U.S. President Donald Trump from the published Epstein files.
In a statement, the committee said lawmakers believe the department did not disclose FBI materials related to a woman who claimed in 2019 that she was assaulted by Trump decades earlier.
“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DoJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes,” wrote Congressman Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the committee.
“Under the oversight committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these records must immediately be shared with Congress and the American public. 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.”
Garcia said he reviewed “unredacted evidence logs at the justice department” on Monday as part of Democrats’ weeks-long investigation into the bureau’s handling of the accusation against Trump.
In its own statement, the DOJ denied improperly withholding any documents.
“NOTHING has been deleted. 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,” read the statement on X.
“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.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has released millions of pages of documents detailing the lifestyle and famous friends of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For The National, CBC’s Eli Glasner breaks down what the files have revealed so far, and what could happen next.
The back-and-forth comes after an NPR investigation found some files related to Epstein were not publicized as they should have been under law, including “what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.”
“NPR’s investigation found dozens of pages that appear to be catalogued by the Justice Department but not shared publicly,” the article read.
The New York Times subsequently reported on Wednesday that its own review found several FBI memos that summarized bureau interviews related to the woman’s claim were not included in the tranche of published materials.
“According to [an] index, the F.B.I. conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one summary of the four interviews, which describes her accusations against Mr. Epstein, was released by the Justice Department. The other three are missing,” the newspaper reported.
NPR said the woman named Trump when she made her allegation in 2019. The outlet said Trump attempted to make sexual contact with her after Epstein introduced them around 1983, when she was 13 years old. At the time, Trump would’ve been in his late 30s.
Trump has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The DOJ has removed thousands of documents from the Epstein files because some of the published records contained the names or other identifying information of dozens of women who accused Epstein of sex trafficking, abuse and other crimes.
Another removed document included salacious claims of potentially criminal behaviour by Trump and former president Bill Clinton, including allegations of sex with underage teen girls. Those claims were never substantiated by any investigators.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department wrote in a statement on Jan. 30.
The president did not mention Epstein or the files during his lengthy state of the union address on Tuesday night, with a number of survivors in attendance. At a counter-event outside the U.S. Capitol, Garcia repeated his assertion that a cover-up had taken place.
“Donald Trump may call this investigation a hoax. He may try to deflect our work, but our message to him is very clear: our investigation is just getting started,” the ranking committee member said.
“We will get justice for these survivors.”