DOJ releases more Epstein files accusing Trump of sexual assault
DOJ reviewing whether Epstein records were withheld
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have opened an investigation into claims that the Justice Department "appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews" in the Jeffrey Epstein files with a woman "who accused President Trump of heinous crimes." The Washington Examiner's Kaelan Deese joins LiveNOW's Austin Westfall to discuss.
WARNING: This article includes links to documents with graphic descriptions of sexual and physical abuse.
The Department of Justice has released a series of FBI interviews with a woman who claims President Donald Trump sexually and physically assaulted her when she was between 13 and 15 years old.
The files were released Thursday, more than a week after Democrats claimed the Justice Department "illegally withheld FBI interviews" in the Jeffrey Epstein files with a woman "who accused President Trump of heinous crimes."
Here’s the latest:
Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida on February 22, 1997. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
What did she say?
What we know:
According to the interview files, known as FBI 302s, the woman came forward in 2019, days after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges. She recalled repeated sexual encounters with Epstein, then detailed her interactions with Epstein’s associates – including Trump.
She said she had three encounters with Trump, the first one when Epstein either flew her or drove her to New York City. She said she was in a very tall building with huge rooms, and that "from the get-go, [Trump] didn't like that I was a boy-girl," or tomboy.
The woman, whose name is redacted in the files, said Trump asked everyone to leave the room, then said something like, "Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be."
She said Trump unzipped his pants, then described a violent, lewd encounter with Trump that ended with him allegedly punching her in the head. Click here to read the woman's full statement.
The woman told investigators that she had two additional interactions with Trump, but didn’t see the point of "providing the information at this point in her life when there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it."
How Epstein files coverage impacts trauma survivors
LiveNOW’s Shawna Khalafi is speaking with child abuse expert and survivor, Jodee Neil, as we learn more about how the public release of the Jeffrey Epstein files can impact trauma survivors. According to experts, while public outrage and political scrutiny play out in the media, survivors of similar traumas can oftentimes remember their own experiences. This comes as both former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were deposed by the House Oversight Committee as part of a congressional investigation into Epstein.
She said she heard Trump and Epstein talk about Epstein blackmailing people, and also heard Trump discussing illegal building permits and "washing money through casinos."
The woman also claimed that Epstein and one of his associates blackmailed her mother with lewd pictures of her as a minor. She said Epstein and his associate showed her mother how to embezzle money from the real estate company she worked for to pay Epstein, then later turned her in for the same embezzlement. The woman said her mother ended up in prison.
She also said she received multiple threatening phone calls, most of which began after she gave birth to her daughter, warning her to keep her mouth closed. The woman said she and her mother were targeted while driving in Oregon and Washington, with SUVs trying to run them off the road on more than one occasion.
What we don't know:
The interview summaries don’t say whether the FBI considered her allegations credible.
Missing Epstein files
Dig deeper:
The FBI interviews came to light last week after media reports exposed them as missing and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee began investigating whether the Trump administration was purposely shielding them. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump, requires the Justice Department to release all unclassified documents and investigative materials with few exceptions.
RELATED: Missing Epstein files: Trump sexual assault claims withheld, lawmakers say
The FBI conducted four interviews with the woman from August through October 2019, then wrote summaries from each one. The interview summaries were listed in an index of investigative materials, but only one was released in the Epstein file dumps. That interview describes her allegations against Epstein, not Trump. The other three memos were missing until this week. One file released by the Justice Department before this week includes a summary of her accusations.
DOJ responds
The other side:
The Justice Department denies purposely withholding the interviews. In a post on social media Thursday, the department said the files were inadvertently withheld because they were incorrectly labeled as "duplicative."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently described the woman’s interviews as "completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history."
Epstein files latest
By the numbers:
The Justice Department has released more than 3 million files related to Epstein in the past few months.
RELATED: New photos from Epstein's estate show Trump, Bill Clinton and more
Epstein, a wealthy financier, was known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, including Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Epstein was first accused of sexually abusing underage girls in 2005, but he made a secret deal with the U.S. attorney in Florida to avoid federal charges, enabling him to plead guilty in 2008 to a relatively minor state-level prostitution charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.
Bondi and Balint back-and-forth over Epstein files
Rep. Becca Balint questioned Attorney General Pam Bondi in an oversight hearing Wednesday.
In 2019, Manhattan federal prosecutors revived the case and charged Epstein with sex trafficking, alleging he sexually abused dozens of girls. He killed himself in jail a month after his arrest.
RELATED: Clemency vs. pardon: Ghislaine Maxwell appeals for clemency from Trump
Epstein’s longtime friend and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping recruit some of his underage victims. The Trump administration has struggled to shake the saga because of the president’s close ties to Epstein. Conspiracy theorists and others have suspected government cover-ups and demanded more transparency.
The Source: This article includes information from the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein case files, the Justice Department’s X account, House Oversight Democrats, The Associated Press and previous FOX Local reporting.