Democratic lawmakers accused the administration of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday of withholding FBI interviews with a woman who accuses him of sexual assault when she was a minor, amid controversy over loopholes in the “Epstein files” and an exchange of accusations with the Department of Justice over concealing sensitive records from Congress and public opinion.
Published on: 02/26/2026 - 04:55 Last updated: 02/26/2026 - 07:53
Democrats in the US Congress, on Wednesday, accused the administration of President Donald Trump of being behind what they described as “the largest government cover-up in modern history,” against the backdrop of reports of withholding documents related to allegations of sexual assault against a minor attributed to the Republican president.
These accusations were linked to the way the Ministry of Justice handled the publication of the case files of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of trafficking in minors.
The data showed that the Ministry of Justice published millions of documents related to the Epstein case under the Transparency Law issued last year, but a review by National Public Radio (NPR) revealed gaps in the documents related to a complaint filed by a woman in 2019 accusing Trump of assaulting her when she was a minor. Trump, on the other hand, repeated his denial of any wrongdoing, stressing that the publication of what is known as the “Epstein files” exonerated him.
The indexes and serial numbers of investigation documents into the human trafficking network linked to Epstein stated that the FBI conducted four interviews with the woman and prepared summaries and notes for her, according to the radio.
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The public database showed the presence of one summary focusing on her allegations against Epstein, while three other summaries and more than 50 pages of notes were absent from the Department of Justice website, in findings that were also supported by the New York Times and the MS Now network.
The documents state that the complainant first contacted authorities in July 2019, shortly after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
Her allegations that Epstein introduced her to Trump, who assaulted her in the mid-1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old, later appeared in internal references. A document issued in 2025 by the FBI also referred to this allegation without including an assessment of its credibility, while notes of follow-up interviews conducted in August and October 2019 were not included.
Democrats intend to open a parallel investigation into the Justice Department's withholding of interview documents, rejecting its justifications that the procedure is legal and temporary for redaction.
France 24/AFP
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