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Epstein files containing a major allegation against Donald Trump have reportedly surfaced online.
The allegations against the 80-year-old president were made by a woman referred to as "Jane Doe 4".
According to reports, she accused Trump and the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 while in custody awaiting his trial, of sexual and physical abuse beginning when she was 13.
Her specific allegations against Trump remain unsubstantiated. Trump is not being criminally investigated over the claims and has denied any wrongdoing as it relates to Epstein.
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Back in February, the Justice Department announced it was investigating claims that a selection of Epstein-related files had been withheld.
The DOJ had described some withheld material as "duplicative" of information already turned over, but that explanation came under fire.
Among the documents attracting attention were 37 pages of handwritten FBI notes from a 2019 interview with "Jane Doe 4," a South Carolina woman.
Per the Daily Beast, she was interviewed four times by the FBI and was found credible by the agency, a DOJ source revealed to the Miami Herald.
Some details of her account have since been verified, although her allegations against the president remain unsubstantiated.
Former MSNBC host Katie Phang had been among those pursuing the 37 pages, with her ongoing lawsuit against the DOJ specifically seeking their release alongside foreign-language documents connected to Epstein.
New York-based writer Amy Gabrielle has appeared to uncover an online archive containing some of the sought-after FBI material.
Writer and data researcher Rye Howard-Stone later investigated the discovery and published his findings on Substack.
Howard-Stone identified the alleged source of the upload as Kaelan Deese, a journalist with the conservative Washington Examiner.
Deese published an article titled "What’s still missing from the Epstein files" on March 7.
According to Howard-Stone, the journalist had "quietly released" 22 of the missing 37 pages on the document-sharing platform Scribd one day earlier.
The documents seemingly went unnoticed by major media outlets for months.
"This meant that, for the last five months, anyone with internet access could view the notes, which had Jane Doe 4’s real name all over them, as well as significant biographical details and the names of childhood friends and family members who she said could corroborate elements of her story – all of which she gave the FBI in confidence, and all of which the DOJ had redacted," he penned.
"But Deese, who regularly publishes articles with a favorable conservative gloss, was part of a small, select group of people that DOJ brass secretly decided were – unlike the public and members of Congress – able to be trusted with these allegedly 'duplicative,' ultra-sensitive files. Entirely unredacted," he added.
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Howard-Stone claimed Deese "took the files down shortly after" he contacted an editor at the Washington Examiner.
However, he also claimed Deese had shared additional handwritten FBI notes with "one random person who had discovered the posts".
"We found that person who shared his text message exchanges with Deese," Howard-Stone wrote.
The discovery raised another important question: Were the documents uploaded online authentic?
Phang told Howard-Stone that the "timing of the discovery and release of these unredacted handwritten notes" was "interesting," and argued that their contents also challenged the DOJ's explanation for withholding them.
"There also remains an open question as to the authenticity of these published notes. That question could be readily answered if the FBI would just comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and release the notes they’ve been legally required to do," Phang said.
"Regardless, what these notes DO show is that they are not 'duplicative' of the FBI 302s as Blanche has asserted and they clearly contain allegations of sexual abuse and physical abuse committed by Donald Trump with a victim who was 13-15 years old at the time. So the Trump DOJ has no incentive to release them," Phang added.
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