The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it is releasing additional files connected to financier Jeffrey Epstein after identifying records it said were not included or were handled incorrectly during an earlier review. In a statement posted to X, the department said it would continue to accept reports of concerns from members of the public, review them, correct issues, and republish corrected materials online.
The new files include what the DOJ described as uncorroborated claims made by a woman against President Donald Trump, which the department said were retained in error during the prior release. The department said it had previously been working to determine whether any documents had been improperly held back after multiple news organizations reported that the large set of documents released in December did not include some records tied to interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who made an accusation involving Trump.
According to the DOJ, agents with the FBI interviewed the woman in four separate sessions as the agency evaluated her account, but only a summary of one of those interviews appeared in the documents made public earlier. The department said Thursday that the missing records were “codificados incorrectamente como duplicados” and therefore were not released with the rest of the investigative materials.
The DOJ acknowledged that the Epstein file releases have generated political and public controversy, with critics charging that the department hid certain documents or over-redacted parts of the material, while others said the DOJ sometimes failed to protect privacy. The AP described that in some cases the department inadvertently released images of nudity with faces of potential victims visible, along with names, email addresses and other identifying information that were not redacted or not fully obscured.
The department’s disclosure arrives amid renewed attention from Congress. The AP reported that five Republicans on the House Oversight Committee voted with Democrats on Wednesday to approve a subpoena for Bondi to answer questions under oath—an episode the report framed as a sign of frustration growing within the president’s own party.
The DOJ has said it is trying to comply with a law passed by Congress after months of public and political pressure to release Epstein-related records while also protecting victims. The department has also said it has the right to withhold certain documents that it says would expose potential abuse victims, are duplicates, are protected by legal privileges, or relate to a criminal investigation that remains ongoing.
One set of new records released on Thursday described a woman who contacted the FBI after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 and said a man identified as “Jeff,” who lived in Hilton Head, South Carolina, assaulted her there in the 1980s when she was about 13. The AP reported that the woman told agents at the time she did not know the man’s identity, but later concluded it was Jeffrey Epstein after a friend sent her a text message with the man’s photo from a news story.
In a follow-up interview a month later, the AP reported, the woman added further claims, including that Epstein had allegedly plotted to have her mother sent to prison, that he allegedly struck her, that he allegedly arranged sexual encounters with other men, and that she claimed Epstein took her on a flight to New Jersey or New York where she said he bit Donald Trump after Trump attempted to sexually assault her. Agents spoke with the woman two more times, and at one point asked for additional details about alleged interactions with Trump, but the AP reported she declined and cut off contact. The AP also reported there was no indication Epstein had lived in South Carolina and that it was unclear whether Trump and Epstein knew each other during the period in question.
The AP described the woman’s report as one of several uncorroborated accounts federal agents received from members of the public in the months and years after Epstein’s arrest, including claims accusing Trump and other well-known figures of crimes. The DOJ has previously said, including in January, that some of the documents contain “afirmaciones falsas y sensacionalistas” about Trump that were presented to the FBI shortly before the 2020 election.