The Justice Department has posted on-line three FBI memos describing interviews related to unverified sexual assault allegations in opposition to President Donald Trump that had been lacking from the huge trove of Epstein recordsdata launched by the Department of Justice.
A NCS analysis found dozens of witness interviews have been lacking from the net archive of proof related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, all of which have been memorialized in so-called “302” memos laying out what an interviewee advised FBI brokers. The 302s don’t embody different corroborating info or brokers’ opinions.
Among the lacking information have been three memos about interviews with a lady who advised brokers that Epstein had repeatedly abused her bodily and sexually a long time in the past, beginning when she was roughly 13 years previous, and who additionally accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.
Trump has constantly denied wrongdoing in reference to Epstein. In an announcement Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the claims from the FBI interviews as “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence.” She additionally questioned the credibility of the accuser, whose identify is redacted within the recordsdata, pointing to her prison file.
“The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them — because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong,” Leavitt added.
FBI brokers performed 4 interviews with the lady, however just one memo memorializing an interview in July 2019 was out there within the DOJ database that was made public earlier this yr. In that interview, the lady alleged she was repeatedly abused by Epstein when she was a minor residing in South Carolina. She didn’t make any allegations about Trump in that interview.
The newly launched recordsdata cowl three extra interviews performed with the lady in August and October 2019.
In the second interview, the lady described extra abuse by Epstein and several other of his male associates. She stated that Epstein “drove her and/or flew her to either New York or New Jersey” someday when she was between 13 and 15 years previous, and he or she was taken to a “very tall building.” It was there that she stated Epstein launched her to Trump.
Trump requested everybody to depart the room the place they met, and “mentioned something to the effect of, ‘Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,’” in accordance to the outline of the lady’s feedback within the interview. He then unzipped his pants and put her head “down to his penis,” she advised brokers.
The lady advised brokers that she bit Trump, who then struck her and stated “words to the effect of, ‘get this little bitch the hell out of here.’”
Later within the interview, the lady advised brokers she heard Trump and Epstein speaking about Epstein blackmailing individuals and likewise heard Trump “talking about washing money through casinos.”
In the lady’s third FBI interview, about three weeks later, brokers wrote that she described receiving threatening phone calls that she stated she believed had to do with Epstein or Trump, in addition to a number of incidents the place she was “almost run off of the road” by different automobiles.
During the fourth interview – about two months after her final assembly with FBI brokers – the lady didn’t have an lawyer current, in contrast to the earlier conferences. She advised regulation enforcement brokers she was uncomfortable being recorded and requested them, “what’s the point?” of coming ahead with allegations after the statute of limitations had probably handed, the brokers wrote.
The memo famous that the brokers inspired her “to go home and take as much time as she needed to think about speaking with the agents further.”
It’s unclear what grew to become of the FBI’s investigation into the lady’s claims. An electronic mail despatched between FBI brokers final summer season and included within the DOJ 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 because the accuser.
A lawsuit in opposition to the Epstein property features a sufferer who made claims concerning the financier – that he had abused her in South Carolina and introduced her to gatherings in New York City with “prominent, wealthy men” – that matched among the claims the lady made within the FBI interviews. She doesn’t identify Trump within the lawsuit.
That sufferer, recognized as “Jane Doe 4,” was “deemed ineligible to receive compensation” by the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, a system arrange to independently assessment claims by victims, in accordance to 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 in January that she obtained a monetary settlement from the property. Her lawyer declined to remark to NCS final week.
The Justice Department has not defined why the Trump-related witness interview descriptions weren’t launched however stated in an announcement final week that it had initiated a assessment to see whether or not any paperwork have been “improperly tagged in the review process.” If that occurred, the division stated it might launch them, the assertion stated.
Under the regulation, the DOJ can withhold recordsdata which can be duplicates, privileged, or a part of an ongoing federal investigation.
The division has been fiercely criticized for its redaction course of, and has had to repeatedly take down paperwork, edit redactions, and republish them. Among essentially the most egregious points reported have been victims whose identities, or images, have been made public with out their information.
The Justice Department additionally republished photos to the Epstein recordsdata library on Wednesday that had been quickly taken down after being flagged for potential nudity.
There are nonetheless a number of thousand photos left to repost, a division official advised NCS, which may even be executed Thursday.
Three months after their launch, Justice Department workers are nonetheless spending a number of hours per week on the recordsdata, fixing redaction and posting errors, a senior Justice Department official advised NCS. About 1% of the three million paperwork had points with redactions, the official stated.
“Normally in life, getting 99% of things right is pretty good, but that’s a lot of mistakes,” the individual stated.
The Justice Department will not be at the moment investigating any particular person related to Jeffrey Epstein, a senior Justice Department official stated Thursday.
At this level, with none new info, the official doesn’t anticipate anybody can be charged in reference to Epstein.
Trump beforehand directed the division to open an investigation into Epstein’s ties to distinguished Democrats. That investigation was opened, below Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton, but it surely has not resulted in any new instances.
Isabelle Khurshudyan and Samatha Waldenberg contributed to this report