Dozens of interviews with FBI witnesses, including three interviews involving a woman who accused US President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her, have disappeared from the Epstein files published by the US Department of Justice. CNN says so, confirming what was published yesterday by US National Public Radio.
According to CNN’s analysis, an evidence log provided to Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers includes the serial numbers of about 325 FBI witness interview reports, but more than 90 of those reports, more than a quarter of the list, do not appear to be on the Justice Department’s website. Among the missing documents are three interviews related to a woman who told federal agents that Epstein repeatedly abused her starting when she was about 13 and who also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, pointed to the apparently missing documents to question the extent of the Justice Department’s disclosure and questioned whether the Trump administration complied with the law requiring the agency to release its files related to Epstein. “We have a survivor who has made serious allegations against the president,” the congressman told CNN, “but there are a number of documents, and what would appear to be possible interviews, that the FBI conducted with the survivor, that are actually missing and that we don’t have access to.”
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. In a statement, the White House called the allegations against Trump “false and sensationalistic.”
A Justice Department spokesperson denied that records relating to Epstein had been expunged and stressed that the department was complying with the law. “We have not deleted anything and, as we have always said, all relevant documents have been produced,” the spokesperson said. The documents not included in the release were “duplicate, confidential or part of an ongoing federal investigation,” he added, without answering follow-up questions about specific files.