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Documents from Epstein investigation include allegation against Trump
Reuters
Newly released FBI records summarising interviews with an unidentified woman contain allegations that U.S. President Donald Trump attempted to force her to perform a sexual act when she was a teenager, according to documents published by the U.S. Justice Department.
The documents were released after being wrongly labelled as “duplicative” during the sifting of millions of papers, photographs and videos made public by the department in recent months as part of disclosures linked to the investigation into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Historic claims come to light
The records, which were posted on the department’s website on Thursday, summarise interviews conducted by FBI agents in 2019 with the unidentified woman.
According to the documents, she claimed Mr Trump attempted to force her to perform a sexual act after Epstein introduced her to the future president in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s, when she was an adolescent.
The FBI interviewed the woman four times as part of its investigation into Epstein. During those interviews, she also alleged that Epstein sexually assaulted her.
Her final interview with agents from the FBI was conducted in October 2019, during Mr Trump’s first presidential term. Agents asked whether she would consider providing more information about the president.
According to the interview summary, she replied by asking “what the point would be of providing the information at this point in her life when there was a strong possibility nothing could be done about it.”
The Justice Department has cautioned that some of the documents released contain “untrue and sensationalist claims” about Mr Trump.
Reuters reported it could not independently verify the woman’s allegations.
Trump administration's response
The documents were first reported by the news organisation Politico.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the disclosures but the Trump administration has since said the claims are untrue.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the allegation as “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence”, according to Politico.
Mr Trump has said his association with Epstein ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier’s sexual abuse.
Records previously released by the Justice Department show Mr Trump flew several times on Epstein’s plane in the 1990s, which he has denied.
Meanwhile, scrutiny over the government’s handling of documents related to the Epstein investigation has intensified in Congress. A committee in the House of Representatives has voted to subpoena U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to question her about how the disclosures are being managed.
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