Epstein files: DOJ releases previously withheld FBI reports about sex abuse allegation against Trump
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice on Thursday released three previously withheld FBI interview reports from 2019 related to a woman who made uncorroborated allegations that she was abused by Donald Trump in the 1980s, when she was a minor.
In a statement on social media, the Department of Justice said the interview summaries — known as FBI 302 reports — were initially withheld from the January release of millions of pages of DOJ documents related to Jeffrey Epstein because they were believed to be duplicative of other documents.
“What we found through extensive review is that a published 302 — additionally disclosed in a published spreadsheet — had subsequent 302s that were coded as ‘duplicative.’ After this was brought to our attention, we reviewed the entire batch with the similar coding and discovered 15 documents were incorrectly coded as duplicative,” the DOJ account said.
The statement did not appear to explain why, beyond possible human error, the records were marked as duplicative. As of Thursday evening, the DOJ database still did not include the handwritten notes from the interviews themselves.
The DOJ also posted several hundred additional pages of records related to Epstein, including FBI summaries of witness interviews in connection with the investigations of Epstein in Florida and New York
An ABC News review of the files added to the DOJ’s website indicates that several of the records appear to be versions of documents posted by the Justice Department earlier this year — some with differences in the amount of redactions applied.
The added documents include multiple versions of a Florida federal prosecutor’s memos from 2007 outlining to her superiors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami the case for charging Epstein. The Justice Department said Thursday in a social media post that five of those memos — which were initially withheld as privileged communications — could be “released while still protecting the privileged materials.”
In an introduction to one of the memos, the prosecutor urged swift action to arrest Epstein.
“Epstein is considered an extremely high flight risk and, from information we have received, a continued danger to the community based upon his continued enticement of underage girls,” wrote assistant U.S. Attorney A. Marie Villafaña. She cautioned against negotiation with Epstein’s attorneys, fearing it could undermine the office’s arguments for pretrial detention.
“I also recommend that the Office refuse a pre-indictment interview to Epstein or his counsel and that no information about the status of the case be shared to keep Epstein from fleeing from the jurisdiction,” Villafaña wrote.
The indictment proposed by Villafaña was never presented to a grand jury. Epstein’s lawyers engaged with federal prosecutors in protracted negotiations that resulted in an agreement forgoing federal prosecution which allowed Epstein to plead guilty to comparatively lesser charges in state court in 2008. ABC News previously reported on one version of the prosecution memo that was included in the DOJ release in January.
According to the FBI 302 reports released Thursday, the FBI interviewed the woman four times between July and October 2019. During each of the interviews with the woman, whose identity is redacted, she made allegations of abuse against Epstein.
In her second interview with federal investigators, she claimed that Epstein once took her to either New York or New Jersey where he introduced to Trump when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. According to the report, she claimed Trump abused her during that trip.
In the fourth interview in October 2019, the woman declined to provide additional details about the alleged interaction with Trump when asked by agents, according to the summary of that interview.
Her statements to the federal agents allege that the incident with Trump took place in the early-to-mid 1980s — a period when Epstein and Trump did not appear to be in contact.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.
In her initial interview with the FBI, the woman claims she was sexually abused by Epstein after being hired for what she thought was a babysitting job, but she said there were no children present. Similar abuse occurred, she said, on several more occasions, according to the summary of the first report, which was released by the DOJ in January.
The witness said multiple alleged incidents with Epstein took place in South Carolina, a location not known to have been frequented by Epstein. The timing of the allegations would place them two decades before law enforcement in Florida began investigating Epstein for sexual exploitation of minors.
Before the additional records were released Thursday, Congressional Democrats had accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding the documents to protect the president.
“It is unconscionable, it is illegal, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president need to answer where those files are,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, D-Calif. said last week.
In a statement in January, the Department of Justice said that some investigative files in the massive tranche released would include unsubstantiated claims about Trump.
“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement said.
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