Dems Say DOJ ‘Illegally’ Buried Epstein Files Related to Allegation Against Trump

Donald Trump and his administration did what they could last year to keep the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein from seeing the light of day, before Congress ultimately voted to force the Justice Department to release the material. It has since done so in a piecemeal, incomplete manner that has only raised more questions about the convicted sex offender’s relationship with some of the most powerful figures in the United States — including the president.

NPR reported on Tuesday that the Justice Department withheld documents related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor, including over 50 pages of FBI interviews with the accuser. MS NOW independently confirmed the reporting later on Tuesday, adding that the accuser alleged that around 1983 Trump forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 13 or 14 years old and that Trump hit her when she resisted. 

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, released a statement addressing the missing files, announcing that Oversight Committee Democrats are going to investigate.

“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor,” he wrote. “Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice. Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes. Oversight Democrats will open a parallel investigation into this.”

There is no public evidence that Trump was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, and the files include other unsubstantiated allegations against Trump and other prominent figures. Still, Trump’s names allegedly appears in the files thousands of times, and his repeated insistence that Americans move on from the pedophilia scandal, which he has called a “hoax,” has not quelled concerns about the president’s relationship to Epstein.

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The Justice Department responded on X, accusing Democrats of “misleading the public” and claiming that “NOTHING has been deleted.”

Democrats are trying to raise awareness over the Justice Department’s handling of the files ahead of Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Several Democrats will reportedly wear lapel pins calling for the full release of the files, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the most vocal Democrats in calling for transparency, is bringing Haley Robson, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, to the State of the Union as his guest. “We will not quit, we will not rest until we get justice for the survivors,” Khanna said in a video.

Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)r led the bipartisan congressional effort to force the Justice Department to release the files, and will reportedly sit together during the State of the Union despite belonging to different parties. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), another Republican who has been vocal in calling for the full release of the files, told Axios that she will wear a pin honoring Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
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Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, spoke at a press conference on Tuesday. “There are moments in our nation where we are tested. Not by our words, but by what we are willing to confront,” he said. “Today we stand at one of these moments. America is at a crossroads. We can choose to let the Epstein case remain a stain on our history, another chapter where the powerful are protected, the truth is buried, and survivors are asked to carry the consequences in silence. Or, we can choose something different. We can choose truth, we can choose accountability, and we can choose to build a country where no one, no matter how well-connected and politically insulated, stands above the law.”

Rep. Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, spoke at the same press conference. “I want to remind the president and the attorney general that they are in violation of the law,” he said, “and that when the president makes his speech tonight, he’s going to know that looking back at him will be numerous survivors or Epstein’s abuse, and that he is facilitating the single largest cover-up in modern American history.”