The Department of Justice on Thursday released three previously withheld FBI interview reports from 2019 related to a woman who made uncorroborated allegations that she was abused by Donald Trump in the 1980s, when she was a minor.<\/p>\n
In a statement on social media, the Department of Justice said the interview summaries\u00a0— known as FBI 302 reports —\u00a0were initially withheld from the January release of millions of pages of DOJ documents related to Jeffrey Epstein\u00a0because they were believed to be duplicative of other documents.<\/p>\n
“What we found through extensive review is that a published 302 — additionally disclosed in a published spreadsheet — had subsequent 302s that were coded as ‘duplicative.’ After this was brought to our attention, we reviewed the entire batch with the similar coding and discovered 15 documents were incorrectly coded as duplicative,” the DOJ account said.<\/p>\n
The statement did not appear to explain why, beyond possible human error, the records were marked as duplicative. As of Thursday evening, the DOJ database still does not include the handwritten notes from the interviews themselves.<\/p>\n
According to the reports, the FBI interviewed the woman four times between July and October 2019. During each of the interviews with the woman, whose identity is redacted, she made allegations of abuse against Epstein.<\/p>\n
In her second interview with federal investigators, she claimed that Epstein once took her to either New York or New Jersey where he introduced to Trump when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. According to the report, she claimed Trump abused her during that trip.<\/p>\n
In the fourth interview in October 2019, the woman declined to provide additional details about the alleged interaction with Trump when asked by agents, according to the summary of that interview.<\/p>\n
Her statements to the federal agents allege that the incident with Trump took place in the early-to-mid 1980s — a period when Epstein and Trump did not appear to be in contact.<\/p>\n
![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/f504a719-8cd7-435d-b62d-07b586075068\/epstein-files_1772082142454_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Brendan\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>This photo illustration shows redacted documents from the Epstein Library files released by the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on February 18, 2026. The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), passed overwhelmingly by Congress in November 2025, compelled the Justice Department to release all of the documents in its possession related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein\u2019s criminal activity.<\/p>\n In her initial interview with the FBI, the woman claims she was sexually abused by Epstein after being hired for what she thought was a babysitting job, but she said there were no children present. Similar abuse occurred, she said, on several more occasions, according to the summary of the first report, which was released by the DOJ in January.<\/p>\n The witness said multiple alleged incidents with Epstein took place in South Carolina, a location not known to have been frequented by Epstein. The timing of the allegations would place them two decades before law enforcement in Florida began investigating Epstein for sexual exploitation of minors.<\/p>\n Before the additional records were released Thursday, Congressional Democrats had accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding the documents to protect the president.<\/p>\n “It is unconscionable, it is illegal, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president need to answer where those files are,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, D-Calif. said last week.<\/p>\n In a statement in January, the Department of Justice said that some investigative files in the massive tranche released would include unsubstantiated claims about Trump.<\/p>\n “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n