Newly released documents from the US Department of Justice related to the investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have brought fresh allegations against US President Donald Trump.
The documents include FBI interview notes from 2019 in which an unnamed woman accused Trump of sexually and physically assaulting her when she was a teenager in the 1980s after being introduced to him by Epstein. The files were recently made public after officials said they had previously been withheld because they were mistakenly labelled as duplicate records during earlier document releases, Reuters reported.
What did the woman allege?
According to the FBI interview summaries, the woman claimed that Epstein began abusing her when she was a school going child aged 13 and later introduced her to Trump.
She alleged that during one encounter in a large building in either New York or New Jersey, Trump made inappropriate comments and attempted to force her into sexual acts. The woman said she fought back and resisted the alleged assault.
The interview notes also contained claims that Trump physically struck her during the encounter. These allegations were documented by federal agents as part of the broader investigation into Epstein’s network and activities, according to PEOPLE.
The Justice Department clarified that the FBI records contain allegations from interviews but do not represent proven facts. Investigators did not bring charges against Trump related to these claims, and officials noted that the allegations remain unverified.
Trump denies allegations
Trump and his allies have strongly rejected the accusations. The White House and Trump representatives described the claims as baseless and lacking credible evidence. They also argued that similar allegations had surfaced years earlier but were dismissed or not pursued by investigators. Trump has repeatedly said he had no involvement in Epstein’s crimes and has maintained that he cut ties with Epstein in the mid-2000s.
The release of the documents has renewed political and public scrutiny of the Epstein case and the handling of related records by US authorities.