Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1997. Photo / Getty Images
The US Department of Justice withheld documents from the Epstein files that allege Donald Trump sexually abused a minor, according to US media reports.
More than 50 pages missing from the release contain notes from several interviews the FBI conducted with a woman who claimed she was abused by Trump in 1983, when she was around the age of 13.
The DoJ did not respond to questions from National Public Radio (NPR), which uncovered the missing files, about why they had not been published.
The Trump administration has already been accused of summarily deleting files from the release despite a law mandating the release of the entire government archive.
On Tuesday, Democrats in the House oversight committee said they could “confirm” that the “DoJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with a survivor”.
The committee, which is structurally bipartisan but divided on party lines, is meant to investigate corruption and malfeasance in the executive branch.
Through an examination of the serial numbers attached to every document in the vast Epstein files archive, NPR found that 53 pages were inexplicably missing.
They contain the FBI’s notes on a series of interviews detailing an allegation, summarised elsewhere in the files, that Trump forced an Epstein victim’s head “towards his exposed penis, which she subsequently bit”.
The woman told investigators she was between 13 and 15 at the time and claimed that Trump then “punched her in the head and kicked her out”.
Unlike most of the tips received through the FBI’s National Threat Operations Centre, this one was actively followed up.
FBI agents spoke to the woman four times, starting in 2019, according to documents uncovered by independent journalist Roger Sollenberger.
Ultimately the woman “refused to co-operate” in a potential investigation into Trump, a New York FBI agent emailed a colleague in July 2025.
The Epstein files do contain the notes on one interview that agents conducted with the woman, in which she details how she was groomed and abused by Epstein. In this interview, her attorney said the woman was “concerned about implicating additional individuals, and specifically any that were well known, due to fear of retaliation”.
The FBI agents noted that, in identifying Epstein, she handed them a “widely distributed” photograph of the disgraced financier that had been cropped to remove Trump.
Several Democrat senators described the NPR story as proof that the release of the Epstein files had been manipulated to protect the reputation of the President.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said: “Well: reporting confirms it – the justice department withheld Epstein files that contained allegations about Trump abusing a minor. What are these people trying to hide?”
The President has long denied any participation in or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
The woman’s claim against him is included in a 2025 PowerPoint presentation compiled by the justice department, summarising a number of allegations made against “prominent names”, including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Lesley Wexner, the Victoria’s Secret tycoon.
Her name has been redacted. It is marked with two asterisks that appear to indicate a “criminal history”.
In response to requests for comment, the White House and the DoJ directed the Telegraph to a statement posted on X by the latter’s “Rapid Response” unit.
“Oversight Democrats should stop misleading the public while manufacturing outrage from their radical anti-Trump base,” it reads.
“The Justice Department has repeatedly said publicly AND directly to NPR prior to deadline – NOTHING has been deleted. If files are temporarily pulled for victim redactions or to redact Personally Identifiable Information, then those documents are promptly restored online and are publicly available.”
The statement then referred to the exceptions to the law mandating publication of all the files, which include “duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation”.
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