WASHINGTON — Tips provided to federal investigators about Donald Trump's alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein's schemes with young women and girls are “sensational” and “false,” the Justice Department said Tuesday after a new batch of files released as a result of the investigation made numerous references to the president.
The documents include a limousine driver who reportedly overheard Trump discussing a man named Jeffrey “raping” a girl, as well as an alleged victim accusing Trump and Epstein of rape. It is unclear whether the FBI followed this advice. An alleged rape victim died from a gunshot wound to the head after reporting the incident.
Nowhere in the newly released filings do federal law enforcement agents or prosecutors indicate that Trump was suspected of wrongdoing or that Trump, whose friendship with Epstein continued into the mid-2000s, was himself under investigation.
But one 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 of time when Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's top confidante who would eventually be convicted on five federal counts of sex trafficking and 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 sensational allegations made against President Trump and provided to the FBI just before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “To be clear, the allegations are baseless and false, and if they had any credibility, they would most likely already have been weaponized against President Trump.”
“Nevertheless, because of our commitment to the law and transparency, the Department of Justice is releasing these documents with legally required protection for Epstein's victims,” the department added.
DOJ files were released with major edits after bipartisan lawmakers in Congress passed new legislation requiring him to do so, despite Trump aggressively lobbying Republicans over the summer and fall to oppose the bill. The President will ultimately Signed the Epstein File Transparency Act. after the legislation was passed by veto-proof majorities in both houses.
One of the newly released files contains a letter purportedly from Epstein, a notorious child sex offender who died in prison awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges — received widespread attention online but was seen by the Justice Department as an example of erroneous or misleading information contained in the files.
The letter appears to have been sent by Epstein to Larry Nassar, another convicted sex offender, shortly before Epstein's death. The letter writer speculated that Nassar would learn after receiving the note that Epstein “took a 'shortcut' home,” possibly referring to his suicide. It was sent from Virginia on August 13, 2019, despite Epstein's death in a Manhattan prison three days earlier.
“Our President shares our love for young, pubescent girls,” the letter said. “When a young beauty walked by, he liked to 'grab it,' while we ended up carrying grub to the canteens of the system. Life isn't fair.”
The Justice Department said the FBI confirmed the letter was “FAKE” after it circulated on Tuesday.
“This false letter serves as a reminder that the fact that a document is published by the Department of Justice does not make the statements contained in the document factual,” the department wrote on social media. “However, the Department of Justice will continue to release all materials required by law.”
The department faced bipartisan review because he failed to release all of Epstein's files in his possession by the December 19 deadline required by law to do so, and to redact material in the vast majority of documents.
Justice Department officials said they followed the law by protecting victims through redactions. The Epstein File Transparency Act also requires the department not to edit images or references to prominent or political figures and to provide a written explanation for each edit.
The latest release, released 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 release accusing the Justice Department of a “cover-up,” writing on social media: “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 have already drawn attention to the relationship, showing that Epstein wrote in emails to associates that Trump “knew about the girls.”
The latest document released also includes an email from a person identified as “A” who claims to be staying at Balmoral Castle, the royal residence in Scotland, and asks Maxwell if she has found him “some new inappropriate friends.” Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, has come under scrutiny in recent years for his links to Epstein.
Speaking Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said the ongoing Epstein scandal is a “distraction” from Republican gains and expressed disapproval over the release of images in the files revealing Epstein associates.
“I believe they provided over 100,000 pages of documents and there was a huge backlash,” Trump told reporters. “It's an interesting question because a lot of people are very upset that photos of other people are being published that actually have nothing to do with Epstein. But they're in the photo with him because he was at a party, and you're ruining someone's reputation. So a lot of people are very angry that this is going on.”
