WASHINGTON- Information provided to federal investigators about Donald Trump’s alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s schemes with young women and girls is “sensationalist” and “false,” the Justice Department said Tuesday, after a new tranche of records released as part of the investigation contained multiple references to the president.
The documents include a limo driver who allegedly overheard Trump discussing a man named Jeffrey “abusing” a girl, and an alleged victim accusing Trump and Epstein of rape. It is unclear whether the FBI acted on this information. The alleged rape victim died after being shot in the head after reporting the incident.
Nowhere in the newly released records do federal law enforcement agents or prosecutors indicate that Trump was suspected of wrongdoing, or that Trump — whose friendship with Epstein lasted until the mid-2000s — was himself the subject of an investigation.
But an unidentified federal prosecutor noted in a 2020 email that Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously reported,” including during a period when Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s top confidante who would ultimately be convicted of five federal counts of sex trafficking and sexual abuse, was under investigation for criminal activity.
The Justice Department issued an unusual statement unequivocally defending the president.
“Some of these documents contain false and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI immediately before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department statement said. “Let me be clear: these claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a modicum of credibility, they certainly would have already been used as a weapon against President Trump. »
“Nevertheless, as part of our commitment to the law and transparency, DOJ is releasing these documents with legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” the department added.
The Justice Department records were released with heavy redactions after bipartisan lawmakers in Congress passed a new law requiring it to do so, despite Trump’s aggressive lobbying of Republicans over the summer and fall to oppose the bill. The president ultimately signed the Epstein Records Transparency Act after the legislation passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
A recently released filing containing a letter purportedly from Epstein — a notorious sex offender who died in prison while awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges — attracted widespread attention online but was held up by the Justice Department as an example of false or misleading information contained in the filings.
The letter appears to have been sent by Epstein to Larry Nassar, another convicted sex offender, shortly before Epstein’s death. The letter’s author suggested that Nassar would learn after receiving the note that Epstein had “taken the ‘short route’ home,” possibly referring to his suicide. It was postmarked in Virginia on August 13, 2019, despite Epstein’s death in a Manhattan jail three days prior.
“Our president shares our love of nubile young girls,” the letter read. “When a young beauty passed by, he loved to ‘catch things’, while we ended up stealing food from the system’s dining halls. Life is unfair.”
The Justice Department said the FBI confirmed the letter was “FALSE” after making the rounds Tuesday.
“This false letter serves as a reminder that the mere fact that a document is published by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations contained in the document factual,” the department posted on social media. “Nevertheless, DOJ will continue to disclose all documents required by law.”
The department has faced bipartisan scrutiny since it failed to release all Epstein files in its possession by Dec. 19, the legal deadline to do so, and failed to redact material from the vast majority of documents.
Justice Department officials said they followed the law in protecting victims through the redactions. The Epstein File Transparency Act also directs the department not to redact images or references to political or high-profile figures, and to provide a written explanation for each redaction.
The latest release, just days before the Christmas holiday, includes about 30,000 documents, the department said. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a statement in response to Tuesday’s statement accusing the Justice Department of a “cover-up,” writing on social media that “new DOJ documents raise serious questions about the relationship between Epstein and Donald Trump.”
Documents from Epstein’s private estate released by the Oversight Committee earlier this fall had already shed light on the relationship, revealing that Epstein wrote in emails to associates that Trump “knew about the girls.”
The latest released documents also include an email from an individual identified as “A”, claiming to be staying at Balmoral Castle, a royal residence in Scotland, asking Maxwell if she had found “any new inappropriate friends” for him. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has come under scrutiny for his ties to Epstein in recent years.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday, Trump said the continuing Epstein scandal amounted to a “distraction” from Republican successes, and expressed disapproval of the release of images in the files revealing Epstein associates.
“I believe they gave over 100,000 pages of documents, and there was tremendous backlash,” Trump told reporters. “It’s an interesting question, because a lot of people are very angry about posting photos of other people who really have nothing to do with Epstein. But they’re in a photo with him because he was at a party, and that ruins someone’s reputation. So a lot of people are very angry that this continues.”
