The FBI interviewed a woman four times who accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a minor in the 1980s, but three of the four interviews are omitted from the Epstein files, according to new revelations made public this week.
Timeline
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at a Victoria’s Secret Angels event on April 9, 1997.
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Donald Trump, girlfriend (and future wife), Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000.
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Crucial Quote
News Peg
Multiple outlets reported this week three of four interviews the Justice Department conducted with a Trump accuser in 2019 are missing from the Epstein files. The Justice Department released approximately 3 million documents on Jan. 30, including 2,000 videos and 18,000 photos, related to its investigation into Epstein in order to comply with federal law requiring the documents to be released in their entirety. Under the law Congress passed last year, the documents were required to be released within 30 days of Trump signing it on Dec. 19, but the Justice Department said it was unable to meet the deadline because the documents required heavy redactions of victim information. It said on Jan. 30 it has now made public all the Epstein documents it plans to release, though millions more have been withheld. Trump urged Republicans to support the bill after it was clear the GOP had the support to pass it. The Trump administration had previously tried to quash the issue, however, with the DOJ announcing in July it would not release the files voluntarily, contradicting Trump’s promises on the campaign trail. The move angered some of his most influential supporters, marking one of the most significant rifts of Trump’s political career between the president and his MAGA base.
What We Don’t Know
The accuracy of references to Trump in the Epstein files. Trump is among several high-profile men who were named in unverified tips the FBI received that include allegations of sexual abuse by Trump and Epstein. Many of the tips were secondhand and there is no evidence to corroborate them, the FBI notes in emails contained in the files. Epstein made several references to Trump in the files, writing in an 2011 email to Maxwell that Giuffre spent “hours” at his house with Trump, though Giuffre said in a 2016 deposition she only met Trump “a few times” while working for him at Mar-a-Lago, and never saw Trump and Epstein together. In a series of 2015 emails between Epstein and former New York Times reporter Landon Thomas, Jr., the financier offered the reporter “photso [sic] of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” though it’s unclear if Epstein actually possessed the photos, and The Times reported Thomas says he never received them. Epstein also suggested Thomas “ask my houseman about donald [sic] almost walking through the door leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool and he was so focused he walked straight into the door.” In various emails to Wolff, Epstein insulted Trump and proposed a series of what he described as “provocative” questions Trump should be asked. He referred to him as “dopey donald” and “demented donald” in a 2018 email to Wolff, suggesting Trump was engaged in shady business dealings and made false claims about his wealth and assets. “All a sham,” Epstein wrote. In 2018, Epstein wrote, “i am the one able to take him down,” in response to a text from an unidentified acquaintance claiming the media is “really just trying to take down Trump.” Other emails Epstein sent about Trump could be characterized as general observations and innocuous fodder about the president, while some indicate Epstein and his associates were digging for damning information about Trump. In June 2019, for example, Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, told him he had just reviewed Trump’s federal financial disclosure, calling it “100 pages of nonsense,” noting several “interesting findings.” It’s unclear if Epstein responded.
Chief Critics
Some Democrats in Congress have accused the Justice Department of violating federal law by failing to release the Epstein files in their entirety. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said the agency has “now made it clear that they intend to withhold roughly 50% of the Epstein files, while claiming to have fully complied with the law.”
Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida on February 22, 1997. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
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Key Background
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking minors to his wealthy friends and associates. Trump is among a long list of Epstein’s high-profile associates, including billionaire Les Wexner, Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton. Many of Trump’s MAGA allies have pushed conspiracy theories about Epstein through the years, including that he was killed, rather than died by suicide, and kept an alleged list of high-profile clients. The Justice Department has said no such list exists and reiterated that Epstein died by suicide.
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2026/02/10/trumps-history-with-jeffrey-epstein-trump-allegedly-called-maxwell-evil-in-2006/
