US justice department accused of withholding Trump-related Epstein files

BBC:

The top Democrat on the congressional committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein has accused the US justice department of withholding files containing allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against President Donald Trump.

Robert Garcia, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said he had personally viewed documents containing the allegation that had not been made public.

In response, the justice department said “NOTHING has been deleted”, adding that documents were withheld only if they were “duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation”.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein case and has recently said he has been “totally exonerated”.

The justice department has also previously said that some of the files contain “untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump”.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Tuesday that “by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”

On Thursday, the justice department said that files flagged to the agency “related to documents produced to Ghislaine Maxwell in discovery of her criminal case that they claim appear to be missing” will be reviewed by the department.

“Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law,” the justice department said on social media.

Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, appears to have been friends with Trump for a number of years. They later fell out – which happened in the early 2000s, according to Trump, two years before Epstein was first arrested.

The justice department has released millions of files that show what the federal investigations into Epstein uncovered. The staged releases were prompted by an act signed off by the president, who had earlier resisted the release of the material.

Some files were redacted, and officials have acknowledged that other files were not released at all. The legislation allowed the justice department to withhold certain files to secure active investigations or prosecutions, and to protect the identities of victims.

Garcia said the files he had seen “make it clear” that a woman “made additional, specific allegations” against Trump that “are not reflected” in the records that have been made public by the department.

As a member of Congress, Garcia is legally permitted to view the unredacted versions of the released Epstein files at the department, as the House Oversight Committee conducts its own investigation into Epstein.

On Thursday, Garcia said he and other Democrats would be working over the next few days to demand that the remaining unreleased files, including those pertaining to the woman’s potential allegations against Trump, get released to the public.

“We have seen the DOJ files and the archive manifest that clearly shows that the interviews and information around this survivor have been removed and are missing from the DOJ files,” Garcia told reporters in New York.

“Where are these files? Who removed them? Those questions have to be answered,” he added.

Garcia previously said he had written to US Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that they be published.

In its response, Bondi’s justice department accused Democrats on the committee of “misleading the public while manufacturing outrage from their radical anti-Trump base”.

In a separate statement posted on X, the department also said it would review whether any files had been improperly withheld.

Kentucky Republican Representative James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Thursday that lawmakers are still looking into the accusation that the justice department has withheld the files pertaining to Trump.

“We’re still looking to get a definitive answer on that,” he said when asked about the matter.