A top Democrat in the US Congress has accused the Justice Department of withholding FBI interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually abusing her as a minor from its public release of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Representative Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said he had confirmed media reports from National Public Radio and independent journalist Roger Sollenberger that the Justice Department withheld more than 50 pages of material dealing with the woman's claims from more than three million Epstein-related documents it has released.
The New York Times subsequently published a story.
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, arguing that the DOJ's so-called "Epstein Files" release exonerated him.
Indexes and serial numbers attached to the investigative materials into Epstein's trafficking ring indicate that FBI agents conducted four interviews with the accuser and generated summaries and accompanying notes, NPR reported.
Only one summary - focused largely on her allegations against Epstein - appears in the public database.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said yesterday that Mr Trump had been "totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein."
In a statement, the Justice Department said some media outlets have alleged that files related to Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell are also missing from records released to the public.
"As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, the department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production," it said on X.
"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," it said, alluding to the bipartisan bill passed last year that ordered the Trump adminstration to release all its Epstein files.
The woman first contacted authorities in July 2019, shortly after Epstein's arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
Later internal references in the released files describe her as alleging that the disgraced financier introduced her to Mr Trump and that Mr Trump assaulted her in the mid-1980s, when she was 13 to 15 years old.
Law enforcement authorities have not accused Mr Trump of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
The Justice Department has previously cautioned that the material it has released includes unfounded accusations and sensationalist claims about Mr Trump.
Mr Trump socialised with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s but has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes, and says he broke off ties before the financier's 2008 conviction on solicitation of a minor for prostitution.
Mr Garcia said the withheld material showed that the FBI took the woman's allegations seriously and interviewed the woman four times but only released the first interview, which did not detail her accusations against Mr Trump.
"The fact that DOJ is suppressing documents alleging President Trump's commission of sexual abuse of an underage victim only heightens my genuine concerns about a White House cover-up," Mr Garcia wrote in a letter to the department.
The Justice Department has struggled to process the millions of Epstein-related documents and missed the month-long timeline for their release set by Congress. The department says it has withheld material that could compromise the identity of Epstein's victims or jeopardise ongoing investigations.
To date, the documents made public include photos of Mr Trump with several women whose faces are redacted and a suggestive note to Epstein, framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to bear Mr Trump's signature.
Evidence and testimony submitted in the 2021 trial of Maxwell indicate Mr Trump travelled on Epstein's plane multiple times. Epstein wrote in one email that Mr Trump "knew about the girls," though it is not clear what he meant.
Mr Trump denies ever flying on Epstein's plane and has said the suggestive note was faked.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
