Justice Division says it’s reviewing whether or not any Epstein-related data had been mistakenly withheld

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By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Division mentioned Wednesday that it was wanting into whether or not it improperly withheld paperwork from the Jeffrey Epstein information after a number of information organizations reported that some data involving uncorroborated accusations made by a girl in opposition to President Donald Trump weren’t amongst these launched to the general public.

The announcement adopted information stories saying {that a} huge tranche of data launched by the Justice Division didn’t embrace a number of summaries of interviews that the FBI performed with an unidentified girl who got here ahead after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by each Trump and Epstein when she was a minor within the Eighties.

“A number of people and information shops have not too long ago flagged information associated to paperwork produced to Ghislaine Maxwell in discovery of her legal case that they declare seem like lacking,” the Justice Division mentioned in a put up on X. “As with all paperwork which were flagged by the general public, the Division is at present reviewing information inside that class of the manufacturing.” Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant, is serving a 20-year jail sentence on a intercourse trafficking conviction.

It mentioned that if any doc is discovered to have been improperly withheld and is aware of the federally enacted regulation mandating the information’ launch, “the Division will after all publish it, according to the regulation.”

At situation is a collection of interviews mentioned to have been performed in 2019 with a girl who made an allegation in opposition to Trump, who has constantly denied any wrongdoing in reference to Epstein. Information stories from current days say the accuser was interviewed 4 occasions however a abstract of solely a kind of interviews was included within the publicly launched information.

The lacking data had been earlier reported by the journalist Roger Sollenberger on Substack and NPR, and have since been documented by different information organizations, together with The New York Occasions, MS Now and CNN.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee, mentioned in an announcement that his panel would examine the withheld data. He mentioned he had reviewed unredacted proof logs and “can verify that the DOJ seems to have illegally withheld FBI interviews” with the accuser.

The Justice Division final month mentioned it was releasing greater than 3 million pages of data associated to Epstein, who took his personal life in a New York jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking prices. The division mentioned on the time that, although it was trying to be clear, it was additionally entitled to withhold data that uncovered potential abuse victims, had been duplicates or protected by authorized privileges, or associated to an ongoing legal investigation.

“Among the paperwork include unfaithful and sensationalist claims in opposition to President Trump that had been submitted to the FBI proper earlier than the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they’ve a shred of credibility, they definitely would have been weaponized in opposition to President Trump already,” the division mentioned in an announcement final month because it launched the data.

The redaction course of was shortly revealed to have been flawed, with the division withdrawing some supplies recognized by victims or their legal professionals, together with a “substantial quantity” of paperwork recognized independently by the federal government.

Legal professionals for Epstein accusers advised a New York decide final month that the lives of almost 100 victims had been “turned the wrong way up” by sloppy redactions within the authorities’s newest launch of data. The uncovered supplies embrace nude images exhibiting the faces of potential victims in addition to names, e-mail addresses and different figuring out data that was both unredacted or not totally obscured.

Different uncorroborated claims in opposition to Trump and different public figures had been included within the publicly accessible information. The division didn’t say in its social media put up Wednesday why data associated to this particular accusation may need been withheld.

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