DOJ Claims Trump-Related Epstein Files Were ‘Incorrectly’ Withheld Because of Mislabeling

A labeling error caused several documents and prosecution memos to be left out the Epstein file release, including some that pertained to President Trump, the Department of Justice said.

The Department of Justice said that about 15 documents and five prosecution memos were incorrectly labeled as “duplicative” and not published.

“All 20 of these documents are now live in the library in data set 12. We will also make available all files coded as duplicative in unredacted form for Members of Congress to review in the Congressional Reading Room,” the DOJ said in a statement.

The release of the documents comes after an NPR investigation that pointed out documents appeared to be missing from the DOJ’s publication of more than 3.5 million documents related to the Epstein case.

NPR reported in late February that the release appeared to be missing at least 50 pages of FBI interviews, including an interview in which a minor girl accused Trump of sexual assault. Also, NPR compared the data set of what was initially released by the DOJ and noted that some documents were released, taken down, and then put back online. While others appeared still not be up.

The new documents released by DOJ now do include comments made by a girl between 13 and 15 years old who made sexual assault allegations against Trump during an FBI interview. Forbes noted that the girl was interviewed by the FBI four times, and mentioned Trump in her second, third, and fourth interviews.

The DOJ preemptively addressed allegations against the President in the Epstein files when the documents were released: “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

Jeffrey Epstein was indicted on sex trafficking charges in 2019 and killed himself in prison. Epstein’s primary accomplice and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year-sentence.

The House Oversight Committee began investigating the Epstein case last year, issuing a subpoena for records on August 5. Those efforts led to Congress passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Nov. 19. Earlier this year, the Justice Department released more than 3.5 million documents related to the case.