Commuters stroll previous a bus cease close to 9 Elms Station as activists put up a poster displaying President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein close to the US Embassy in London. File.
| Picture Credit score: AP
The Justice Division on Thursday (March 5, 2026) launched further Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata involving uncorroborated accusations made by a girl in opposition to President Donald Trump that the division mentioned had been mistakenly withheld throughout an earlier overview.
The Division mentioned final week that it was working to find out if any information have been improperly withheld after a number of information organizations reported that the huge tranche of information that had been made public didn’t embody some recordsdata documenting a collection of interviews performed in 2019 with a girl who made an allegation in opposition to Trump.
The accuser was interviewed by the FBI 4 instances because it sought to evaluate her account however a abstract of solely a type of interviews had been included within the publicly launched recordsdata.
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On Thursday (March 5, 2026), the division mentioned these recordsdata had been “incorrectly coded as duplicative,” and subsequently have been inadvertently not revealed together with different investigative paperwork associated to the disgraced financier, who killed himself whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking expenses in 2019.
“As we now have persistently finished, if any member of the general public reported considerations with data within the library, the Division would overview, make any corrections, and republish on-line,” the Division mentioned in a submit on X.
Mr. Trump has persistently denied any wrongdoing in reference to Epstein. The Division famous in January that a number of the paperwork comprise “unfaithful and sensationalist claims in opposition to President Trump that have been submitted to the FBI proper earlier than the 2020 election.”
The brand new disclosures come as Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi faces continued turmoil over the division’s dealing with of the recordsdata launched below a legislation handed by Congress after months of public and political strain. 5 Republicans on the Home Oversight Committee joined Democrats in voting Wednesday (March 4, 2026) to subpoena Bondi, demanding that she reply questions below oath in an indication of mounting frustration amongst members of the president’s personal get together.
The Trump administration has confronted fixed political complications because the rollout of the recordsdata started in December, with critics accusing the division of hiding sure paperwork or over-redacting recordsdata, or in some instances, not redacting sufficient. In some instances, the division inadvertently launched nude photographs displaying the faces of potential victims in addition to names, electronic mail addresses and different figuring out data that was both unredacted or not totally obscured.
Division officers have defended their dealing with of the recordsdata, saying they took pains to launch the recordsdata as shortly as potential below the legislation whereas additionally defending victims. Division officers have mentioned errors have been inevitable given the quantity of the supplies, the variety of attorneys viewing the recordsdata and the pace at which the Division needed to launch them. The Division has mentioned it’s entitled to withhold information that uncovered potential abuse victims, have been duplicates or protected by authorized privileges, or associated to an ongoing legal investigation.
A few of the new information revealed Thursday (March 5, 2026) pertained to a girl who contacted the FBI shortly after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed {that a} man named “Jeff” residing in Hilton Head, South Carolina, had raped her there within the Eighties when she was round 13 years previous. The lady informed the brokers she didn’t know the person’s id on the time, however many years later concluded he was Jeffrey Epstein when a buddy texted her his photograph from a information story.
In a follow-up interview a month later, the girl added a number of different claims, together with that Epstein had schemed to have her mom despatched to jail, crushed her, organized sexual encounters with different males and as soon as flew her to both New Jersey or New York, the place she claimed to have bitten Donald Trump after he tried to sexually assault her.
Brokers spoke with the girl two extra instances, at one level asking her to offer extra element on her supposed interactions with Trump, however reported that she declined to reply further questions and broke off contact. There’s no indication that Epstein ever lived in South Carolina and it was unclear whether or not Trump and Epstein knew one another in the course of the time interval concerned.
The lady’s report was one in every of a lot of uncorroborated, typically fantastical, stories that federal brokers obtained from members of the general public alleging misconduct by Mr. Trump and different well-known individuals within the months and years after Epstein’s arrest.
Revealed – March 06, 2026 12:51 pm IST