According to the report, the omissions contain materials particularly damaging to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Dozens of FBI witness interviews from the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein appear to be missing from the massive trove of files released by the Department of Justice last month, according to a CNN review — including three interviews related to a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her decades ago,” CNN reported.
A list of evidence provided to lawyers for Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell included serial numbers for about 325 FBI witness interview reports, but more than 90 of those reports, over a quarter of the list, are not available on the Justice Department’s public site, CNN noted.
“Among those missing records are three interviews related to a woman who told agents that Epstein had repeatedly abused her starting when she was approximately 13 years old, and who also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her,” the report stated.
A Justice Department spokesperson denied that any records were removed from the published materials and said the department acted within the law.
“We have not deleted anything, and as we have always said, all documents responsive were produced,” CNN quotes the official response.
The DOJ claims documents not included in the public release are “duplicates, privileged, [or] part of an ongoing federal investigation.”