Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department withheld and removed dozens of pages from its public database on Jeffrey Epstein. These concerned allegations that President Donald Trump sexually abused a minor decades ago.
The report found that the Justice Department under Bondi did not release certain Epstein-related records, even though a 2025 law requires the release of unclassified materials tied to federal investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. NPR noted that some of the missing documents include over 50 pages of FBI interview summaries and notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor.
NPR identified the gaps by comparing serial numbers from documents in the Justice Department’s online database with FBI case files, discovery materials, and internal logs related to the Maxwell prosecution. The report stated that several records mentioning Trump were either withheld completely or removed after they initially appeared online.
Bondi’s department did not respond to questions about why specific files were not posted. After the article was published, Justice Department spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre reiterated that records not made public are withheld because they are privileged, duplicates, or tied to ongoing federal investigations. Per the report, this explanation did not clarify why some files were removed after being uploaded.
In a statement to NPR, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump “has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein” and pointed to his signing of the disclosure law and cooperation with congressional requests.
The reporting focuses on two sets of documents that mention Trump. One set involves an accuser whose claim appears in an internal FBI log of tips and in a Justice Department slide presentation that lists prominent names linked to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations.
According to NPR, the FBI interviewed the accuser four times, but only the first interview summary is publicly available, and it does not mention Trump. The review of serial numbers indicated that around 53 pages related to subsequent interviews are missing from the public database established by Bondi’s department.
The second set of files involves a woman who testified in the criminal case against Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal sentence for sex trafficking. NPR noted that at least one FBI interview document referencing a meeting with Trump was removed from the public database after the Jan. 30 release and was later reposted. Another interview document remains offline while the Justice Department reviews it for further redactions.
The department informed NPR that files may be temporarily removed if a victim or their attorney flags them for review. Bondi has previously defended the release of Epstein-related disclosures, stating in letters to Congress that no records were withheld or redacted due to embarrassment, harm to reputations, or political sensitivity.
In a statement, the Justice Department said it is working “around the clock” to respond to concerns from victims and to apply additional redactions of personal information. The department has stated it published about 3.5 million pages in late January as part of its compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The NPR investigation adds to ongoing scrutiny of how Bondi’s Justice Department is managing high-profile records linked to Epstein. His 2019 death in federal custody ended criminal proceedings against him but left extensive litigation and disclosure battles continuing in federal courts.
