Dozens of FBI witness interviews from the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein seem like missing from the large trove of recordsdata launched by the Department of Justice final month, based on a NCS overview – including three interviews associated to a lady who accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her many years in the past.
An proof log supplied to attorneys for Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell consists of serial numbers for about 325 FBI witness interview records – however greater than 90 of these records, over 1 / 4 of the record, don’t seem like current on the DOJ web site, based on NCS’s overview.
Among these missing records are three interviews associated to a lady who informed brokers that Epstein had repeatedly abused her beginning when she was roughly 13 years previous, and who additionally accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.
A Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday pointed to the apparently missing paperwork to query the extent of DOJ’s launch and whether or not the Trump administration adopted the regulation mandating the company publish its recordsdata associated to Epstein, the rich financier who died in a federal jail in 2019 whereas going through intercourse trafficking fees.
“We have a survivor that made serious allegations against the president,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the rating Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, informed NCS. “But there’s a series of documents, and it would appear to be possible interviews, that the FBI conducted with the survivor that are actually missing, that we don’t have access to.”
Trump has persistently denied wrongdoing in reference to Epstein. In an announcement, the White House referred to as the allegations towards Trump “false and sensationalist” and pointed to a earlier DOJ statement that “some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”
Details in regards to the missing paperwork associated to the Trump accuser had been beforehand reported by NPR and unbiased journalist Roger Sollenberger.
A DOJ spokesperson denied that any Epstein records had been deleted and harassed that the division was following the regulation.
“We have not deleted anything, and as we have always said, all documents responsive were produced,” the spokesperson mentioned. Documents not included within the launch had been both “duplicates, privileged, (or) part of an ongoing federal investigation,” the spokesperson mentioned. They didn’t reply follow-up questions on particular recordsdata.
It’s doable that some of the paperwork referred to within the Maxwell proof logs could possibly be current elsewhere within the recordsdata with out the serial numbers listed on the logs, or with these serial numbers redacted.
Many paperwork have additionally been eliminated and added again to the DOJ’s Epstein recordsdata web site over the weeks for the reason that preliminary launch. Last week, NCS’s evaluation discovered that a few dozen further interview stories had been additionally missing, however these had been out there on-line as of Tuesday afternoon. One of the 2 proof logs was additionally offline final week however is now accessible once more. The DOJ spokesperson mentioned that it was “temporarily removed for victim redactions.”
Several Epstein victims have mentioned that they’ve scoured the DOJ’s web site in latest weeks for recordsdata documenting their very own interviews with the FBI – solely to return up empty handed.
“All of us have been looking for our victim statements,” Jess Michaels, who was assaulted by Epstein when she was 22 years previous, informed NCS after the file launch. Heavily redacted and missing interview stories counsel that “this Department of Justice is actually gaslighting the entire country,” Michaels argued.
Buried within the greater than 3 million pages of recordsdata launched by the DOJ is a set of paperwork that federal prosecutors supplied to attorneys for Maxwell prematurely of her 2021 intercourse trafficking trial.
Those records embrace a whole bunch of FBI memos referred to as “302” recordsdata that doc interviews, in addition to different supplies associated to dozens of witnesses, some of whom testified on the trial, based on two evidence logs included within the DOJ launch.
Experts mentioned they had been involved in regards to the apparently missing 302s as a result of they’re key to understanding the FBI’s yearslong investigation into Epstein and Maxwell. Typically, 302s lay out what an interviewee informed brokers, however don’t embrace different corroborating info or brokers’ opinions.
“It’s the most basic and important brick in the wall that becomes the investigation,” mentioned Andrew McCabe, the previous FBI deputy director and a NCS contributor.
Details about most of the missing 302 paperwork, including the id of the folks interviewed, are largely redacted from the proof logs.
But some of the missing interview records seem like associated to a witness who accused Trump of sexual assault.
The girl first referred to as an FBI hotline and reported that she had been a sufferer of Epstein on July 10, 2019, a number of days after his arrest, based on case recordsdata.
FBI brokers then interviewed her at her lawyer’s workplace two weeks later, based on a 302 document that lays out what she mentioned within the interview. The girl informed brokers that Epstein had repeatedly abused her at a house he was staying at in South Carolina after he responded to an advert for babysitting providers. The abuse began when she was roughly 13 years previous, the lady mentioned.
At one level within the interview, when the lady confirmed brokers a well known picture of Trump and Epstein collectively {that a} buddy had despatched her, her lawyer mentioned she was “concerned about implicating additional individuals, and specifically any that were well known, due to fear of retaliation,” based on the doc.
The Maxwell proof log notes three further 302 paperwork dated in August and October 2019 associated to the identical sufferer, in addition to three different units of “interview notes.” None of these seem like current within the recordsdata launched by the DOJ, though there are copies of a number of photographs she supplied to the FBI in addition to records of correspondence along with her lawyer.
Garcia, the Democratic congressman, mentioned that based mostly on unredacted recordsdata he reviewed, the identical girl “made serious allegations about the president.”
Some redacted recordsdata seem to provide extra particulars in regards to the allegation. An FBI presentation ready in 2025 itemizing “prominent names” associated to Epstein consists of the allegation from a redacted girl that Trump pressured her to carry out oral intercourse and struck her within the head after Epstein launched them. The assault allegedly passed off someday between 1983 and 1985.
Another file famous that Trump’s accuser had a connection to South Carolina, and that the lead was despatched to an FBI workplace to conduct an interview.
A lawsuit towards the Epstein property additionally features a sufferer with biographical particulars that line up with the claims the lady made within the FBI interview. One of the plaintiffs within the case, recognized as “Jane Doe 4,” describes Epstein abusing her in South Carolina after she provided babysitting providers. The girl’s attorneys wrote that Epstein flew her to New York City three or 4 occasions and “brought Jane Doe 4 to intimate gatherings with other prominent, wealthy men” who sexually assaulted her.
One of these “prominent men” pressured her to carry out oral intercourse, slapped her within the face, and raped her, the lawsuit alleged. The part of the lawsuit about Jane Doe 4 doesn’t title the person or others who allegedly abused her.
The girl was “deemed ineligible to receive compensation” by the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, a system set as much as independently overview claims by victims, based on a court docket file from May 2021. It’s not clear why she was deemed ineligible. She voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit in December 2021, and her lawyer told The Post and Courier newspaper final month that she obtained a monetary settlement from the property. Her lawyer declined to remark to NCS on Tuesday.
It’s unclear what grew to become of the FBI’s investigation into the lady’s claims. An e-mail despatched between FBI brokers final summer time and included within the recordsdata notes that “one identified victim claimed abuse by Trump but ultimately refused to cooperate,” though it doesn’t specify if it’s the identical individual as Jane Doe 4.
At least one Epstein sufferer has complained to a court docket that the DOJ hasn’t complied with offering full transparency and accountability in its launch of the recordsdata.
The sufferer, Haley Robson, wrote to a federal choose final month questioning why sufferer interview stories and different paperwork haven’t be revealed with sufferer names redacted.
“As survivors, this failure is not merely procedural—it is deeply personal,” Robson wrote in her letter to the court docket. “Continued noncompliance perpetuates the same secrecy that allowed these crimes to continue unchecked for years.”
NCS’s Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Lauren Fox, Jeremy Herb and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.