The vast trove of documents released by the justice department from its investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein failed to include some key materials related to a woman who made an accusation against President Donald Trump, according to a review by The New York Times.
The materials are FBI memos summarising interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor.
The existence of the memos was revealed in an index listing the investigative materials related to her account, which was publicly released. According to that index, the FBI conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one summary of the four interviews, which describes her accusations against Epstein, was released by the justice department. The other three are missing.
The public files also do not include the underlying interview notes, which the index also indicates are part of the file. The justice department released similar interview notes in connection to FBI interviews with other potential witnesses and victims.
It is unclear why the materials are missing. The justice department said in a statement to The Times on Monday that "the only materials that have been withheld were either privileged or duplicates". In a new statement on Tuesday, the department also noted that documents could have been withheld because of "an ongoing federal investigation". Officials did not directly address why the memos related to the woman’s claim were not released.
The woman’s description of being assaulted by Trump in the 1980s is among a number of uncorroborated accusations against well-known men, including the President, that are contained in the millions of documents released by the justice department.
The missing records deepen questions about how the justice department has handled the release of the Epstein files, which was mandated by a law signed by Trump last year after bipartisan congressional pressure.
Harvard resignation
Lawrence H. Summers, a Harvard University economist and the school’s former president, will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, according to a Harvard spokesman.
The announcement comes months after documents released by the department of justice showed a close relationship between Summers and Epstein long after Epstein was convicted of prostitution involving a minor.
New York Times News Service