The Department of Justice has initiated a review to determine if it improperly withheld documents in the Epstein files that include accusations involving President Donald Trump.

Last month, the DOJ released a substantial collection of documents pertaining to the late Jeffrey Epstein, aiming to fulfill the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Nevertheless, notes from 2019 FBI interviews with a woman who accused both Epstein and Trump were notably absent from the release.

These particular documents were also missing from the unredacted files accessible to Congress members at the Department of Justice, according to Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, as reported by NBC News.

Following the Act, which was enacted by Congress in November, the DOJ is obligated to make most documents linked to the investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell publicly available.

The Act allows the department to withhold documents only if they are redundant, protected by attorney-client privilege, could compromise an ongoing investigation, or are irrelevant to the Epstein and Maxwell cases.

The law specifically prohibits the department from withholding or redacting files because they could be embarrassing to public officials. 

Before releasing the files, the Department of Justice deployed hundreds of attorneys to review the files, giving them instructions on how to redact and determine whether the files needed to be released under the law, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Department of Justice announced it is investigating whether it wrongfully withheld documents mentioning President Donald Trump from the Epstein files

The president was apparently mentioned in an interview an Epstein survivor gave the FBI in 2019. Trump is pictured with Epstein in 1992

The reviewers, many of whom had little familiarity with the Epstein case, were then expected to flag any ‘government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials’.

‘Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the department will of course publish it, consistent with the law,’ a spokeswoman for the department said in a statement.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has overseen the release of the files, has previously insisted that the department complied with the law and has not withheld documents or redacted information because it could prove embarrassing for Trump or other public figures.

‘I can assure that we complied with the statute, that we did not protect President Trump,’ he said at a news conference on January 30. ‘We didn’t protect or not protect anybody.’ 

A review of the documents shows the Department of Justice released an FBI summary of the woman’s first FBI interview on July 24, 2019 in which she detailed the assault she faced from the financier on Hilton Head Island beginning when she was around 13 in the 1980s.

The summary of the interview – which came shortly after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges – does not mention allegations against Trump.

But the FBI apparently determined the woman’s initial allegations against Epstein were significant enough that agents followed up with her for three more interviews on August 7, 2019, August 20, 2019 and October 16, 2019. 

Notes from all four FBI interviews with the woman were included on a list of materials provided to Maxwell’s defense attorneys in 2021 and were described as non-testifying witness material, according to another file in the release. 

The woman claimed she was forced into a sex act with Trump when she was about 13 or 14 years old in New Jersey. Trump is pictured here with an unidentified woman in a photo released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has said his friendship with Epstein ended before he pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. Trump, Melania, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell are pictured together in 2000

 A source familiar with the investigation also told NBC News that the survivor is the same person who made an additional allegation that she was forced into a sex act with Trump when she was about 13 or 14 years old in New Jersey.

This accusation was summarized in a document prepared by the FBI last summer in a presentation on the prominent names mentioned in the Epstein and Maxwell cases.

The FBI, though, has said that most of the claims were either deemed not credible or made by people who provided no contact information.

At around the same time that she came forward with these allegations, the woman joined a civil lawsuit against the Epstein estate, claiming he sexually abused her around 1984. 

The suit claimed Epstein flew her to New York and trafficked her to ‘prominent wealthy men’.

However she was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victim’s Compensation Program and her suit was voluntarily dismissed in 2021, the Journal reports. 

President Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has said his friendship with Epstein ended before he pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.

By the time Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t talked to him in about 15 years.

Democratic Representative Robert Garcia, of California, claimed the documents pertaining to President Trump were also omitted from the unredacted collection available for members of Congress to review at the Department of Justice

The Department of Justice had also cautioned ahead of the files’ release that they may include fake or false materials sent to the FBI from the public.

‘Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims about President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,’ officials said at the time.

‘To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.

When asked about the missing files, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson also told NPR: ‘Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything related to Epstein.’

‘By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him,’ she said.

Still, Representative Garcia, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, issued a statement Tuesday saying he planned to open an investigation into the missing files, claiming the DOJ ‘appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes’.

‘This is definitely, in my opinion, evidence of a cover-up happening,’ he told NBC News. ‘Why are these documents missing?’

‘These documents I personally saw, I know who the survivor is, the name is redacted in the doc – in the manifest document – and there are documents missing from the same survivor that appeared to be interviews or conversations, again, appear to be with the FBI.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has insisted that the DOJ has complied with the law and has not withheld documents or redacted information because it could prove embarrassing for Trump or other public figures

‘The FBI has clearly investigated and now those documents are gone,’ Garcia alleged. 

Separately, two House Democrats are asking Blanche to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Pam Bondi lied to Congress during her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Politico reports. 

At the hearing, Bondi insisted there is ‘no evidence’ in the Epstein documents that shows Trump committed a crime.

But in a letter to Blanche, Representatives 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 had previously accused Bondi of lying to Congress during her testimony, to which Bondi retorted: ‘Don’t you ever accuse me of a crime.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment.