Mark Epstein said his brother never spent summers on Hilton Head, casting doubt on an unverified allegation that Jeffrey Epstein introduced a teen there to President Donald Trump, newly spotlighted in FBI interview notes missing from the Epstein release.
Newsweek reached out to Mark Epstein and the White House via email for comment.
Numerous publications have reported on the existence of files relating to a woman who alleged in 2019 that Trump forced her to perform oral sex and struck her in the head after Jeffrey Epstein introduced them in the early 1980s. These claims have not been substantiated.
Trump has always denied any wrongdoing, and the White House has called the allegations “false and sensationalist.”
The lead was included in an internal FBI PowerPoint slide deck detailing “prominent names” in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations last fall.
The Guardian obtained missing FBI reports, including 25 pages of agent notes from four interviews related to the woman conducted in 2019. The publication said that the documents contain claims from a woman who alleged she had been sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein from around 1983, when she was 13 years old and living in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Mark Epstein said he wasn’t aware that his brother spent summers on Hilton Head. “I would have known,” he told The Guardian.
Contacted for comment, the Justice Department (DOJ) previously referred Newsweek to an X post by a subsidiary account that said “NOTHING has been deleted.”
“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,” it added. “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.”
The DOJ also referred Newsweek to a post from its X account, which said:
“As the Department of Justice has consistently said and has done since the January 30, 2026 publication of the Epstein files, if any member of the public, including victims, reported concerns with information in the pages, the Department would review, make any corrections, and republish online. Several individuals and news outlets have recently flagged files related to documents produced to Ghislaine Maxwell in discovery of her criminal case that they claim appear to be missing. As with all documents that have been flagged by the public, the Department is currently reviewing files within that category of the production. Should any document be found to have been improperly tagged in the review process and is responsive to the Act, the Department will of course publish it, consistent with the law.”
It also referred Newsweek to a January 30 press release in which the Justice Department said, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”
Why It Matters
More than 3 million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting further charges, were released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act after widespread clamor for more information. The department has said the files not part of an ongoing federal investigation are available to members of Congress in unredacted form.
What To Know
An NPR investigation, published Tuesday, found that notes from the woman and 50 pages of FBI interviews were missing, according to an analysis of gaps in serial numbers and metadata in the files.
A separate CNN review also said that dozens of FBI witness interviews from the Epstein investigation appear to be missing from the files, including three interviews related to a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.
The outlet said that an evidence log provided to attorneys for Maxwell, an Epstein associate, includes serial numbers for some 325 FBI witness interviews, but that more than 90 of these records are not on the DOJ’s website.
Representative Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, said on Tuesday he had reviewed the unredacted documents, which were available to members of Congress, and said some files listed in an official log appeared to be missing, including those relating to the woman.
The Guardian said that the documents alleged the woman traveled to a building in either New York or New Jersey when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 and was introduced to Trump and others. The publication said the FBI notes said she claimed Trump tried to sexually assault her. They said she bit him, and Trump struck her and had her removed from the room.
What People Are Saying
A White House spokesperson told NPR: “Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein. And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him. Meanwhile, Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries and Stacey Plaskett have yet to explain why they were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender.”
A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday: “We have not deleted anything, and as we have always said, all documents responsive were produced.”
They said documents not included in the release were either “duplicates, privileged, (or) part of an ongoing federal investigation.”
What Happens Next
Garcia said that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee will open an investigation into the allegedly missing documents.
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