Congressional Democrats are accusing the Department of Justice of removing Epstein documents that alleged President Trump was linked to a sexual assault of a 13-year-old in the 1980s.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said after reviewing unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice, he “can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.”
An NPR investigation published Tuesday found that more than 50 pages of FBI interviews and notes from conversations with the woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor were not released publicly, in violation of the Epstein Transparency Act.
Along with the withholding of the files, NPR found that the DOJ also removed some documents where accusations against Epstein also mention Trump from the public database. The files were republished Feb. 19, and the DOJ said any files temporarily removed were flagged by a victim or their counsel for additional review.
In a response to NPR and the accusations against the president, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement: “President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him. Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender.”
Trump – who last week said that the Epstein files had “totally exonerated” him – has never been criminally charged in connection with Epstein or publicly accused of a crime by an Epstein survivor.
Video: @snapsteam
Sources: @npr, @msnow, @cnbc
