JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
We know that President Trump's name is in the Epstein files thousands of times, but there are new details about notable examples where his name does not appear. An NPR investigation finds dozens of pages of documents that mention Trump have been withheld or removed from the public Epstein files database, and they include accusations of sexual abuse against the president. NPR's Stephen Fowler uncovered the story, and he joins me now. Hi there.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
SUMMERS: Stephen, what do we know about these allegations against President Trump?
FOWLER: We found two internal documents from the FBI and the Justice Department. Those documents were published last year and released in the files a few weeks ago. They discuss claims made about Trump in relation to Epstein. Most of them are highly salacious. The records show many of them are unverifiable or not credible reports, and they show investigators took little action on them.
But there is one in particular that accused Trump of sexually abusing a minor around 1983, when she was also being abused by Epstein. It was sent to a field office to investigate further, and it shows up in this PowerPoint from the Justice Department summarizing their investigations into Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, under a section called Prominent Names.
SUMMERS: I mean, this is a pretty serious accusation. Do we know why the Justice Department included that claim against President Trump or how it was resolved?
FOWLER: We do not. Unlike other claims and interviews and people mentioned in this web of investigation, we only have a partial look at the beginning and end of this story with vast unknowns in the middle. Aside from those two documents I mentioned, there's no other reference we found in the millions of pages that have been published to identify where that claim came from or where it went as far as an investigation's concerned. That's highly unusual, especially because there's a myriad of untrue and sensationalist claims about Trump the Justice Department warned that were in the files. And you can see documentation of why those didn't go anywhere. It's also unusual because there's evidence that the FBI talked to this Trump accuser multiple times.
SUMMERS: OK. A couple of questions here, Stephen. What sort of evidence? And how do we know that these documents have been withheld instead of just found elsewhere in the files?
FOWLER: There's basically this table of contents of the FBI's case file for the investigation and for witness materials turned over to Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys in her criminal case. Cross-referencing those lists, we discovered there are four interviews with this Trump accuser. Only one of them is made public and that also doesn't get into these claims against Trump at all.
There are also three sets of serial numbers stamped onto these files, called Bates stamps, where each page or set of documents goes up by one as it moves to the next one. So at the end of this interview document, the bottom tracking number increased by one to go to the next file. The top number, tracking the documents related to this accuser, skipped up by six, and there's a third serial number that jumped by 53, showing that there is likely something out there beyond what the Justice Department is sharing.
SUMMERS: And what have we heard from the Trump administration in response to this reporting?
FOWLER: Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, sent a statement to NPR that says in part, President Trump, quote, "has done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him by signing the law to release the files, among other things." The Justice Department initially declined to answer on record questions about these specific documents. After publication, they reached out to NPR and took issue with how we characterize their initial response. A Justice Department spokeswoman reiterated the Justice Department's stance that any documents not published are because they are privileged, duplicates or relate to an ongoing federal investigation, but they didn't elaborate what the case was for these documents.
SUMMERS: As you know, President Trump is preparing to deliver his State of the Union address this evening, and some of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse are expected to be there as guests of Democratic lawmakers. Tell us what's next with Congress and their role with the Epstein files.
FOWLER: Well, Juana, lawmakers from both parties have argued the Justice Department and the Trump administration have not been transparent. Some of them are inviting these abuse victims to make that point. Also, the House Oversight Democrats issued a statement today that they also found evidence of what NPR reported - that the Justice Department is withholding these interviews related to allegations against Trump. They plan to investigate and seek out those documents.
SUMMERS: NPR's Stephen Fowler in Atlanta, thanks so much.
FOWLER: Thank you.
SUMMERS: And you can read NPR's full reporting on the Epstein files, including this investigation, on our website. That is npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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