Judge Orders DOJ to Turn Over FBI Notes on Woman’s Claim Trump Sexually Assaulted Her as a Teen

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to turn over handwritten FBI notes from four interviews with a woman who said President Donald Trump tried to force her to perform oral sex after Jeffrey Epstein introduced them when she was a teenager.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan directed the DOJ to submit redacted and unredacted versions of the notes by 11 a.m. on Sept. 24. FBI agents created the records during interviews in 2019 and later used them to prepare four formal interview reports that have since been released.

The order calls for a private court review of the disputed records before any decision on broader disclosure. The process allows Sullivan to examine the material while protecting sensitive information, including details that could identify victims.

The dispute stems from a lawsuit filed by journalist Katie Phang over DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law requires the government to disclose unclassified records tied to its investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell while allowing certain victim information and other protected material to remain withheld.

DOJ argued that the handwritten notes were substantially similar to the typewritten interview reports and raised concerns about safely redacting victim information. Sullivan rejected the duplication argument, finding that the original notes and the later FBI summaries are separate records. Phang’s attorneys also identified nearly 100 examples of handwritten FBI interview notes the department had already produced.

Because the notes were written during the interviews, they could contain details or wording that did not appear in the FD-302 reports prepared afterward.

During the 2019 interviews, the woman told FBI agents that Epstein introduced her to Trump in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old. She alleged that Trump tried to force her to perform oral sex during an encounter after the introduction.

The allegation remains uncorroborated. The White House has denied the woman’s account, calling her claims baseless and unsupported by credible evidence. Trump has not been charged with a crime arising from the allegation.

DOJ released additional reports from the interviews in March after acknowledging that 15 records had been incorrectly coded as duplicates during an earlier review of the Epstein files. Those records brought the woman’s allegations involving Trump into public view.

The department has appealed Sullivan’s earlier preliminary injunctionpreliminary injunctionA preliminary injunction is a temporary court order issued before a case is finally decided that requires a party to take or stop an action while the litigation continues. Federal courts generally consider the likelihood of success, irreparable harm, the balance of equities, and the public interest before granting one.Read more → to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but the judge declined to pause the production requirement while that appeal proceeds. DOJ must deliver both versions of the four sets of FBI notes by Sept. 24.