Under-fire Justice Department says it’s ‘reviewing’ after lacking Trump pages are found in Epstein recordsdata launch | EUROtoday

The Department of Justice mentioned Thursday it’s “currently reviewing” paperwork that look like lacking from its public launch of the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata that element unverified allegations towards President Donald Trump. The DOJ remark comes days after investigative reporting first revealed the omission.

The Justice Department has launched hundreds of thousands of recordsdata underneath the Epstein Files Transparency Act, together with 1000’s of emails, courtroom paperwork, pictures and movies, a lot of which embrace photos or references to high-profile figures, together with the president.

But the supplies that have been made public seem to have omitted FBI memos summarizing interviews brokers performed over unverified claims made by a girl who got here ahead after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, who alleged, based on the recordsdata launched by the DOJ, that she was sexually assaulted by each Epstein and Trump a long time earlier, when she was a minor.

NPR first reported on the lacking recordsdata Feb. 24, following reporting from unbiased journalist Roger Sollenberger per week earlier. A evaluation by The Independent of the Epstein recordsdata confirmed that these memos don’t seem.

The White House directed The Independent’s further requests for remark to statements from the Justice Department. Trump has not been accused of felony wrongdoing, and one’s look within the recordsdata doesn’t counsel in any other case. In a press release on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson mentioned Trump has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.”

The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and insists he minimize ties with Epstein years earlier than the rich pedophile — who finally dedicated suicide in a New York City jail cell whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking prices — was underneath investigation. He has characterised efforts to launch the complete recordsdata as a “hoax” perpetuated by Democratic officers to distract from his agenda, and Trump has sued The Wall Street Journal over the publication of an alleged letter to Epstein, a narrative he labelled “false, malicious and defamatory.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, the highest Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, mentioned the committee has now opened a parallel investigation into the difficulty of the lacking recordsdata. The existence of the memos was beforehand revealed in an index that listed the investigative supplies associated to the lady’s account.

FBI brokers carried out 4 interviews in connection together with her declare and wrote summaries from every assembly, based on the index. One abstract describing her accusations towards Epstein was launched by the Justice Department however three different summaries look like lacking.

In its evaluation, NPR reviewed serial numbers that seem earlier than and after the pages in query and which have been stamped on paperwork within the Justice Department’s Epstein recordsdata database, FBI case data, emails and discovery doc logs that have been revealed within the newest batch of recordsdata final month. The investigation discovered dozens of pages catalogued by the Justice Department however not shared publicly, NPR reported and a subsequent evaluation by The Independent verified.

Following the lady’s preliminary declare towards Epstein and Trump in 2019, the FBI adopted up with interviews on 4 separate dates that yr, based on a beforehand launched proof catalog within the case towards Epstein’s affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Only the FBI’s abstract of a type of interviews is included within the recordsdata. It is one that doesn’t point out the allegations towards Trump.

After viewing un-redacted proof logs on Monday, Garcia, in a press release, claimed the FBI “illegally withheld” these interviews.

It is unclear what these paperwork comprise and why they’re lacking from the recordsdata. In a press release on Tuesday, the Justice Department mentioned nothing has been erased and the paperwork might have been withheld due to “an ongoing federal investigation.”

“If files are temporarily pulled for victim redactions or to redact Personally Identifiable Information, then those documents are promptly restored online and are publicly available,” the Justice Department famous.

Following The Independent’s request for remark, a Justice Department spokeswoman despatched a pair of social media posts additional explaining the evaluation course of after information retailers flagged recordsdata “they claim appear to be missing.”

“As the Department of Justice has consistently said and has done since the January 30, 2026 publication of the Epstein files, if any member of the public, including victims, reported concerns with information in the pages, the Department would review, make any corrections, and republish online,” the company mentioned.

“As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, the Department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production,” the assertion continued. “Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.

Under legislation signed into law by Trump in November, the Justice Department was ordered to release all files connected to investigations connected to Epstein by Dec. 19.

The Justice Department has since published millions of pages of files connected to the predator despite blowing deadlines for the full disclosure of all documents in the possession of federal law enforcement.

Trump — whose name has appeared thousands of times in the files – socialized with Epstein throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Epstein once described himself as the president’s “closest friend.”

“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department mentioned in a press release final month because the administration revealed an enormous trove of supplies.

Those claims are “unfounded and false,” the assertion mentioned.