Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are investigating whether the Justice Department purposefully withheld materials in its release of the Jeffrey Epstein files that included sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the panel, said in a statement Tuesday that such an act by DOJ would violate the law Congress passed in November, which required the administration to publicly release all files in its possession related to the federal case against Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
Garcia also said it also would run afoul of the subpoenas the Oversight Committee separately transmitted to DOJ last summer as part of its own Epstein investigation.
“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor,” Garcia said in the statement. “Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.”
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately provide comment to POLITICO regarding whether the administration is withholding incriminating materials.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein allegations, and no evidence has suggested that Trump took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation. Many of the materials released by the Justice Department also lack substantiation or context.
Congressional investigators identified missing materials after matching public files with case files listed in the evidence manifest provided to the legal team of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, said Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Oversight Democrats.
One of those files include an allegation from a redacted individual that Trump sexually assaulted a minor. The accusation appears in a slide deck presentation featuring a list of powerful men who had been at one point connected to Epstein, including Trump.
In that slide deck, a person, whose name has been redacted but was estimated to be between 13 and 15 years old at the time of the alleged incident sometime in the 1980s, accuses Trump of forcing her head down to his penis, then reacting violently when she resisted.
An investigative report by NPR, published Tuesday, found that DOJ withheld “what appears to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, and notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor.” The report also notes that DOJ “removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump.”
POLITICO did not independently verify the NPR findings.
Garcia said he viewed unredacted files on a DOJ computer Monday, per privileges afforded to members of Congress.
“Covering up direct evidence of a potential assault by the President of the United States is the most serious possible crime in this White House cover up,” he added.
The Democrats’ probe, which will lack subpoena power given the party’s minority status, comes as party operatives see political advantage in drawing attention to DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files, alleging the administration is working to hide information that could be damaging to the president and not making enough efforts to bring justice to Epstein’s accusers, a charge that the DOJ denies.
Separately, two House Democrats are asking deputy attorney general Todd Blanche to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether the nation’s top prosecutor, Pam Bondi, lied to Congress during her recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee regarding Trump’s involvement with Epstein.
At that hearing earlier this month, Bondi said there is “no evidence” in the Epstein documents made public by her department that shows Trump committed a crime. In a letter to Blanche, Reps. Dan Goldman of New York and Ted Lieu of California pointed to the unsubstantiated claim in the Epstein documents that Trump allegedly forced himself on the young girl.
Lieu accused Bondi of lying to Congress during the hearing about whether Trump was accused of committing crimes in the Epstein files, without specifying details. Bondi responded, “don’t you ever accuse me of a crime.”
A spokesperson for House Oversight Republicans, in a statement, accused Democrats of “playing politics instead of seeking justice for survivors.”
“In the course of their witch hunt, they’ve cherry-picked and doctored documents to mislead the public and released images with no context to create a false narrative,” she continued.
She also noted Democrats have “refused to condemn their own colleague,” Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), who was found to have been a close associate of Epstein, texting and speaking on the phone with him and trying to set up a visit to his private island.
All Democrats voted against a Republican-led resolution in November that would have formally reprimanded Plaskett and kicked her off the House Intelligence Committee.
“Democrats have no credibility on this issue,” the spokesperson said.
Plaskett has not been found guilty of wrongdoing and has described Epstein as her former “constituent.” Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
