The US Justice Department has released FBI records summarizing interviews with an unidentified woman who made accusations against President Donald Trump regarding an alleged sexual encounter. The woman was interviewed four times in 2019 as part of the investigation into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. While the Justice Department had previously confirmed the interviews took place, only a summary of one meeting had been released, where she accused Epstein of molesting her as a teenager.
The newly disclosed records, posted on the department's website, reveal that the woman also claimed Trump tried to force her to perform oral sex after being introduced to him by Epstein in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old.
The White House did not immediately respond to inquiries about these disclosures. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the woman's claims as "completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence," as reported by Politico, which first unveiled the disclosures.
The Justice Department cautioned that some documents contain "untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump." Reuters could not independently verify the accuracy of the woman's allegations, and FBI records indicate that agents ceased communication with her in 2019.
In a statement on the social media platform X, the Justice Department explained that the records released on Thursday were part of 15 documents that had been "incorrectly coded as duplicative" and not previously published.
This disclosure comes amid Congressional scrutiny of the Justice Department's handling of documents from the Epstein investigation, which it is mandated to make public. Democrats have accused the Trump administration of concealing records related to Trump, prompting a House committee to vote to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to address lawmakers' concerns about the government's handling of these disclosures.
Trump has stated that his association with Epstein ended in the mid-2000s and that he was unaware of the financier's sexual abuse. Previous department records show Trump flew on Epstein's plane multiple times in the 1990s, a fact Trump has denied.
Following the initial accusations against Epstein, Trump reportedly informed the police chief in Palm Beach that "everyone has known he's been doing this," according to an FBI interview record.
In the woman's final interview in October 2019, during Trump's first presidency, agents asked if she would be willing to provide more information about Trump. In response, the agent noted that she questioned the purpose of providing information at that point in her life, expressing doubts about the potential impact of such disclosures.
