The US Justice Department on Thursday released additional files related to Jeffrey Epstein, including FBI memos describing interviews with a woman who made uncorroborated allegations against Epstein and Donald Trump. The materials, which The Guardian obtained and reported on last week, detail a series of FBI interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and Trump in the 1980s when she was a minor. Her claims have not been verified, and the FBI never brought charges related to them, with The Guardian noting that some of her statements appear to contradict known facts about Epstein's life in the early 1980s.
The documents were not included in the Justice Department's earlier releases of Epstein-related records, which began in December. Department officials stated the files were initially withheld because they were mistakenly categorized as duplicates. In a statement on Thursday, the Justice Department said it had identified 15 documents that were incorrectly coded as duplicative and that the Southern District of Florida separately determined five prosecution memos initially marked as privileged could be released while still protecting privileged materials, with all 20 documents now made public.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein's criminal activity. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement to The Guardian, called the woman's allegations "completely baseless" and said they are "backed by zero credible evidence." Leavitt added that "the total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden's department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them – because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong," and claimed Trump has been "totally exonerated by the release of the Epstein Files."
In January, the Justice Department said that "some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election," adding that "the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already." This release comes amid heightened political tensions, with Democrats last week launching an investigation into whether the Justice Department had intentionally withheld materials related to allegations involving Trump in its Epstein files releases.
The new release also coincides with bipartisan scrutiny, as five Republicans on the House oversight committee joined Democrats last week to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Justice Department's investigation into Epstein and its handling of the document releases. This move underscores the ongoing political friction surrounding the Epstein case and its implications for the US regime's credibility and internal divisions.
Source: www.theguardian.com