Congress has ordered the Department of Justice to release all files from its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. But it has been releasing them only in dribbles, and there is now evidence they have been deliberately holding back information about accusations made against Donald Trump, a longtime friend and associate of Epstein.
The New York Times investigates:
The materials are FBI memos summarizing interviews the bureau did in connection to claims made in 2019 by a woman who came forward after Mr. Epstein’s arrest to say she had been sexually assaulted by both Mr. Trump and the financier decades earlier, when she was a minor.
The existence of the memos was revealed in an index listing the investigative materials related to her account, which was publicly released. According to that index, the FBI conducted four interviews in connection with her claims and wrote summaries about each one. But only one of the summaries, which describes her accusations against Mr. Epstein, was released by the Justice Department. The other three are missing.
The public files also do not include the underlying interview notes, which the index also indicates are part of the file. The Justice Department released similar interview notes in connection to FBI interviews with other potential witnesses and victims.
The Epstein files contain every accusation ever made relating to Epstein, and it is quite possible this is a false claim that the FBI found not to be credible. But the Justice Department is not letting us see the evidence and determine if or why investigators drew that conclusion. They are acting as if Trump has something to hide, and their job is to hide it for him.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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