US government releases Epstein files that include uncorroborated claim about Trump

The US Justice Department on Thursday released additional Jeffrey Epstein files involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against US President Donald Trump that the department said had been mistakenly withheld during an earlier review.The department said last week that it was working to determine if any records were improperly withheld after several news organisations reported that the massive tranche of records that had been made public did not include some files documenting a series of interviews conducted in 2019 with a woman who made an allegation against Trump.The accuser was interviewed by the FBI four times as it sought to assess her account, but a summary of only one of those interviews had been included in the publicly released files.On Thursday, the department said those files had been “incorrectly coded as duplicative”, and therefore were inadvertently not published along with other investigative documents related to the disgraced financier, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.“As we have consistently done, if any member of the public reported concerns with information in the library, the Department would review, make any corrections, and republish online,” the department said in a post on X.Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The department noted in January that some of the documents contain “untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”.US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Photo: TNS