Democrats on a key House panel say the Department of Justice failed to disclose material from the Epstein files, including FBI interviews tied to an allegation that President Trump sexually abused a minor.
Members of the House Oversight Committee announced they are examining how the FBI handled a 2019 sexual assault allegation made against President Donald Trump “by a survivor.” They say those materials did not appear among the roughly 3 million files released on January 30.
In a statement made public Tuesday (March 24), Oversight Democrats said they can “confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor,” arguing that suppressing direct evidence to shield the president “is the most serious possible crime.”
Separately, NPR published its own reporting on the matter, claiming the FBI withheld “what appears to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, and notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.”
The White House disputed the Democrats’ claims, insisting no evidence was being concealed and urging committee members to stop what it described as stirring up outrage “from their radical anti-Trump base.”
Addressing the Oversight Committee’s accusation, the DOJ’s communications team posted on X: “The Justice Department has repeatedly said publicly AND directly to NPR prior to deadline – NOTHING has been deleted.
“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 department also said it had complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act by providing the records required, excluding items it characterized as duplicates, privileged materials, or documents tied to an ongoing federal investigation.
A White House spokesperson told NPR that President Trump “has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him,” adding: “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.
“And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”
The spokesperson also referenced the DOJ’s prior position that the Epstein files included “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Trump.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing or any awareness of Epstein’s criminal conduct. After the file release, he said he was “told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it’s the opposite of what people were hoping, you know, the radical left.”
NPR’s reporting said it identified apparent gaps in the public release by tracking unique document serial numbers, concluding that dozens of pages were “catalogued by the Justice Department but not shared publicly.”
After that reporting, Oversight Democrats said they went to the DOJ to review unredacted materials and that the missing records include a 2019 FBI interview with a woman who alleges Trump abused her when she was a minor.
California Representative Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said: “Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice.
“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.”
In a Feb 14 letter to members of Congress, Pam Bondi said that decisions to withhold or redact records were not made “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”