The United States Justice Department has published additional FBI documents detailing interviews with a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by former President Donald Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was between 13 and 15 years old. The documents, released on Thursday, describe multiple 2019 interviews where the woman claimed Epstein introduced her to Trump, leading to the alleged assault.
According to the Justice Department, these documents were not included in previous congressionally mandated releases of Epstein files because they were mistakenly marked as "duplicative." In one interview, the woman stated that she bit Trump as he attempted to force her to perform oral sex on him. She also reported receiving threatening calls over the years, which she believed were linked to Epstein, demanding her silence.
FBI records indicate that agents ceased communication with her in October 2019, during Trump's first term. When asked if she would provide more information about Trump, she reportedly responded by questioning the point, given the strong possibility that nothing could be done about it at that stage in her life. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the claims as "completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence," while Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to the Epstein allegations.
The Justice Department has previously noted that some released documents "contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump." Democrats are currently investigating the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files, amid ongoing political scrutiny. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who helped pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act last year, criticized the recent military actions, stating that "bombing a country on the other side of the globe won't make the Epstein files go away."
Analysts, such as Shaiel Ben-Ephraim of Atlas Global Strategies, have suggested that Trump allegedly "really needs a distraction from his domestic issues in the form of a war." He pointed out that Google searches for the Epstein files have plummeted since the conflict began, indicating that the strategy is temporarily succeeding in diverting congressional and media attention away from the scandal.
Source: www.aljazeera.com