The Department of Justice left out several significant FBI interview files from the large Epstein records archive, including materials involving a woman who said President Donald Trump assaulted her while she was underage, according to coverage by CNN and NPR.
CNN’s analysis found that more than 90 FBI witness interview documents appear to be missing from the DOJ’s release of over three million pages that began in December 2025. Among the missing items are three interviews with a woman who reported that Jeffrey Epstein abused her repeatedly starting at age 13 in the early 1980s and who also alleged that President Trump assaulted her during that timeframe.
The DOJ made the files public after President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, 2025, which mandated the release of all investigative materials tied to the convicted sex offender. Epstein died in federal custody on August 10, 2019, before standing trial for sex trafficking.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, characterized the missing files as potentially criminal. “We have a survivor that made serious allegations against the president,” Garcia told CNN. “But there’s a set of documents, and what seem to be possible interviews the FBI conducted with the survivor, that are missing and inaccessible to us.”
The woman reached out to the FBI hotline around July 10, 2019, after spotting Epstein in a photo. Federal agents interviewed her four times over several months that year, producing more than 50 pages of notes. Only the first interview is available in the public archive, and it is heavily censored.
Independent journalist Roger Sollenberger discovered the inconsistency by comparing serial numbers from evidence logs given to Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense team with the documents published on the DOJ website. Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, was convicted in December 2021 on five sex trafficking–related charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The evidence log includes around 325 FBI witness interview files, but over one-quarter are absent from the DOJ’s public posting. The missing items correspond to interviews conducted in states such as New York, Washington, Oregon, and Georgia.
A DOJ spokesperson denied that anything had been excluded. “We have not deleted anything, and as we have always said, all documents responsive were produced,” the spokesperson said. The department claimed that withheld materials were duplicates, restricted content, or associated with ongoing investigations.
President Trump has continuously denied any misconduct involving Epstein and has repeatedly asserted that the released documents “totally exonerated” him. The White House dismissed the claims as “false and sensationalist.”
The release of the Epstein files has drawn strong criticism from investigators and survivors. Julie K. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter whose work brought Epstein’s activities to light, told PBS NewsHour that the redactions expose persistent inequalities. She argued that shielding powerful men’s identities while revealing some victims’ names shows “two systems of justice in this country.”
Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director and CNN analyst, highlighted the significance of witness interview documents in any criminal case. “It’s the most basic and important brick in the wall that becomes the investigation,” McCabe said.
The DOJ’s release of 3.5 million pages required more than 500 attorneys and reviewers working for weeks to assess materials from six major sources: the Florida and New York prosecutions of Epstein, the New York case against Maxwell, investigations into Epstein’s death, a Florida case involving Epstein’s former butler, various FBI probes, and an Inspector General review. The release also contained over 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
Garcia stated that Democrats on the Oversight Committee will open a probe into the missing documents. “Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover-up,” he said.
The issue has gained international attention, with The Guardian reporting that the U.K. has taken more forceful steps toward institutional accountability regarding Epstein’s network than the U.S. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince who was stripped of his titles, was arrested on Feb. 25, 2026, on suspicion of misconduct in public office based on information included in the files.
Survivors of Epstein’s crimes voiced anger about the incomplete release. “All of us have been looking for our victim statements,” said Jess Michaels, one of Epstein’s victims. She accused the Justice Department of “gaslighting the entire country.”