House Democrats Launch Probe After NPR Finds 53 Missing Pages in Trump-Linked Epstein Files
An NPR investigation says the Justice Department’s public Epstein-files database has gaps tied to allegations involving President Donald Trump, including what NPR describes as 53 missing pages of FBI interview material.
The tension is over whether the missing pages reflect routine redactions and exemptions, or whether politically sensitive records were kept out of public view while officials publicly defended the release as complete.
In NPR’s reporting carried by KPBS, the FBI interviewed the accuser four times, but only the first interview memo dated July 24, 2019 appears in the public database, and it “does not mention Trump.”
Related: NPR Exposes 53 Missing Epstein Pages After Trump Named in Underage Assault Allegation
The same report says a Maxwell discovery log lists 15 documents for that accuser, yet only seven can be found in the public Epstein-files database, alongside the apparent 53-page serial-number gap.
“Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor,” Rep. Robert Garcia said.
DOJ declined to answer NPR’s specific questions about what the missing files contain, and a DOJ spokeswoman reiterated the department’s position that any unpublished items are duplicates, privileged, or tied to an ongoing federal investigation.
The controversy is escalating because NPR also reported that some Trump-mentioning documents were briefly taken down and later restored, while other items remain hidden based on dataset and metadata comparisons.
House Oversight Democrats say they are opening a parallel investigation into DOJ’s handling of the records, setting up the next round of demands for file-level explanations and possible additional releases.
Related: DOJ Briefly Removed Epstein File Showing Maxwell Has Trump Accuser Interviews, Report Says