Justice Department examines missing FBI interviews in Epstein files after media reports

The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it is reviewing whether it improperly withheld documents from the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files after news organisations reported that key FBI interview records were missing from the public disclosure.

The controversy centres on interviews conducted in 2019 with an unidentified woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted as a minor in the 1980s by Donald Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein . Trump has consistently denied the allegations.

According to media reports, the FBI interviewed the woman four times following Epstein’s arrest in 2019, but only one summary of those interviews was included in the material released to the public. The missing records were first identified by journalist Roger Sollenberger and later confirmed by several outlets, including NPR , The New York Times , and CNN .

Last month, the Justice Department announced it had released more than 3 million pages of records related to Epstein. The files were produced under a federal law mandating disclosure of documents connected to Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell , who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

However, the department acknowledged that not all records were made public. It said it was legally permitted to withhold documents that could expose potential abuse victims, duplicate material already released, fall under attorney-client or law-enforcement privilege, or relate to an ongoing criminal investigation.

“Several individuals and news outlets have flagged files related to documents produced to Ghislaine Maxwell in discovery that they claim appear to be missing,” the department said in a post on X. “The Department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production.” It added that any document found to have been improperly withheld and required by law to be released would be published.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said they would open their own inquiry. Representative Robert Garcia , the panel’s top Democrat, said he had reviewed unredacted evidence logs and concluded that the department “appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews” with the accuser.

The document release has already drawn criticism after serious redaction errors exposed names, email addresses and nude photographs of potential victims. Lawyers for Epstein’s accusers told a New York judge this month that nearly 100 victims had been harmed by the government’s handling of the records.

The Justice Department has not explained why the specific FBI interview summaries related to the Trump allegation were excluded from the initial release.