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The Justice Department released a batch of previously unreleased documents from the Epstein
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files that include notes from FBI interviews with the woman who says she was assaulted
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by President Trump as a minor.
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In interviews with the FBI, the woman alleged she was assaulted by Mr. Trump in the 1980s
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and that she was also a victim of Epstein's.
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The documents were released after multiple news outlets discovered they were missing from
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the initial mass release of files.
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For more, we're joined now by our Justice Correspondent Ali Rogan, so Ali, tell us more
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about what's in these documents.
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Jeff, these documents are known as 302 files.
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There's summaries of three interviews the FBI conducted with this accuser in which she
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alleges that Epstein brought her to meet Trump sometime between when she was age 13 and
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She details in very graphic terms, Trump's sexual alleged sexual assault against her and how
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She also says she has, she had two additional interactions with Trump, but before she expanded
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on that any further, she asked if she could go on to another subject.
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During the last interview with the accuser, the FBI asked if she would be comfortable
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sharing more about her context with Trump.
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She said at the time that she didn't know what the point would be when there was a strong
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Something could be done about it and it's unclear, Jeff, if there was any additional follow-up
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after that last interview.
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Why weren't these documents initially released?
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These three summaries are actually part of a set of four and that other document was
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released as part of that initial major tranche we saw in late January.
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That summary was an interview in which the accuser focused on Epstein and didn't mention
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These others also, these others, of course, mention the Trump allegations.
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Others caught this discrepancy because descriptions of all four summaries of the interviews were
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included in a list that was given to attorneys for Epstein co-conspirator, Galein Maxwell.
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In a statement released on social media, the Department of Justice said the interviews
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had been incorrectly deemed duplicative and were subsequently published.
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The DOJ also says that the unredacted versions of the documents will be available for members
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of Congress to review, but reporters have noted that even still there are additional
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documents that remain missing.
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Independent journalist Roger Salenberger has been following this closely, and he noted
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that there are at least 37 pages still missing.
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That includes notes that informed these summaries, as well as internal communication that would
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memorialize how this situation with the accuser was resolved.
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What's the White House saying about all of this?
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White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt put out a statement in which she calls the accusations
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completely baseless, and she says they come from a, quote, sadly, disturbed woman who
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has an extensive criminal history.
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If the accuser is unidentified, how would she know that to be true?
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There are some details in the summaries of these interviews in which the accuser talks
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about her arrests as a minor.
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While these allegations remain uncoroperated, there is new reporting Jeff tonight from
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Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, who's broken much of the Epstein story, saying that
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DOJ officials who spoke to this woman found her to be credible, and that they wouldn't
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have interviewed her four times if they didn't.
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Ali Rogan, thanks so much for this reporting.
