Oversight Dem Says DOJ ‘Appears to Have Illegally Withheld FBI Interviews’ Around Trump Accusation

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Feb 24, 2026

Ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., speaks during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee markup on contempt of Congress resolutions for Bill and Hillary Clinton for failing to comply with the committee’s subpoena, in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday, January 21, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images). TPM illustration/Getty Images

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that he is opening an investigation into the Justice Department potentially withholding documents about an accusation against President Trump in the Epstein files.

“For the last few weeks, Oversight Democrats have been investigating the FBI’s handling of allegations from 2019 of sexual assault on a minor made against President Donald Trump by a survivor,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said in a statement. “Yesterday, I reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Department of Justice. Oversight Democrats can confirm that the DOJ appears to have illegally withheld FBI interviews with this survivor who accused President Trump of heinous crimes.”

The statement piggybacks on an NPR report, which found that the public database of the files is missing over 50 pages of interviews and notes from conversations with a woman who told the FBI that Trump abused her when she was a minor. She said that in 1983, when she was about 13 years old, Trump “forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out.”

Only one of four interviews the woman participated in with the FBI — in which she does not mention Trump — is in the database, per NPR.

“@TheJusticeDept has repeatedly said publicly AND directly to @NPR prior to deadline – NOTHING has been deleted,” the DOJ tweeted Tuesday. “If files are temporarily pulled for victim redactions or to redact Personally Identifiable Information, then those documents are promptly restored online and are publicly available. ALL responsive documents have been produced unless a document falls within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.”

It previously stated that the files “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump,” and told NPR that any documents it withheld were either privileged, duplicates or relate to an ongoing federal investigation.

Documents, including those that name Trump, have been removed from and replaced in the public database of the files. The DOJ has justified some of that movement by saying that it’s acting in accordance with the desires of victims for privacy, though many documents released by the department left victims’ identifying information unredacted. The DOJ is legally obligated to release the documents after Congress passed and Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November.

Members of Congress have been viewing unredacted versions of the Epstein files in recent weeks. Many Democrats are bringing women who have accused Jeffey Epstein, or those in his orbit, of sexual abuse to the State of the Union Tuesday night.

Hegseth’s Retribution Crusade Continues

Lawyers for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed the court Tuesday that they will be appealing U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s ruling granting Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) a preliminary injunction. The decision temporarily stopped Hegseth from reconsidering Kelly’s rank (and corresponding retirement benefits) in response to Kelly criticizing the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard to blue cities and boat strikes in Venezuela. Kelly sued Hegseth after he opened an investigation into the senator.

Leon had chastised the administration, saying it “trampled on Senator Kelly’s First Amendment freedoms.”

Meanwhile, former Fox News host-turned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro dropped efforts to bring a case against Kelly and the five other Democratic lawmakers who participated in the video, NBC News reported Monday. The news comes a few weeks after a federal grand jury in D.C. refused to indict the lawmakers for the video, which featured the group of Democrats reminding servicemembers that they cannot follow illegal orders.

Heated Bigotry After Olympic Gold

The men’s U.S. hockey team continues to deal with fallout after videos emerged of the players partying with FBI Director Kash Patel in their locker room and guffawing along with Trump as he bemoaned that he had to invite the gold medal-winning women’s U.S. hockey team to the White House or he’d “be impeached.”

“People are so negative out there and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing,” Jack Hughes, a member of the team, told the Daily Mail, adding: “People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them and we know the same way we feel about them, they feel about us.”

“Everything is so political,” Hughes lamented.

The men’s team (non-politically) accepted Trump’s invite to the State of the Union, along with a White House tour. The women’s team — which has the same number of gold medals as the men’s team, despite only competing at the Olympics for a quarter of the time the men’s team has — declined Trump’s begrudging invite, citing scheduling conflicts.

State of the Union, And of Trump’s Mind

We watch so you don’t have to. Follow along or catch up with TPM’s team, as we cover a speech that Trump has already promised will be “long.” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) will deliver the Democratic rebuttal.