It’s Time for the Media to Press Trump on Allegations of Abusing a Minor 

I was skeptical that the Jeffrey Epstein files would implicate President Donald Trump in illegal sexual abuse of a minor. It’s not that one cannot imagine Trump being untoward; on the contrary, a jury found him to be liable for sexual abuse. But Trump committing sex crimes against underage girls seemed dubious.  

Yet inconclusive but tantalizing evidence exists in a 21-slide presentation, apparently created last summer by two joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-New York Police Department task forces, summarizing four “Jeffrey Epstein Investigations.”  

A “Timeline” slide of developments in the case, from July 24, 2006, to July 22, 2025, spanning the initial Epstein investigation through Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction and appeal, indicates that the presentation was created after that date. To put it in context, the allegations against Trump appear to come from a single witness and don’t include physical evidence, such as notes or texts. 

One slide titled “Prominent Names” dishes allegations against several famous people and leads with two regarding Trump: 

1. [REDACTED] stated Epstein introduced her to Trump who subsequently forced her head down to his exposed penis which she subsequently bit. In response, Trump punched her in the head and kicked her out. (date range 1983-1985, [REDACTED] would have been 13- 15) 

2. [REDACTED] remember Epstein introduced her to Trump saying “This is a good one, huh” and Trump responded “Yes”. (date range roughly 1984, [REDACTED] would have been 14) 

An email thread from July 24, 2025, circulating in the FBI’s New York field office, appears to include a draft of the “Prominent Names” slide text. The Trump text, which has a typo, is identical to what is in a slightly different, probably draft, slideshow. 

When the latest Epstein files were released on January 30, the allegations against Trump immediately drew attention. For example, that same day, the progressive MeidasTouch Network posted the email thread on X and CNN’s Jake Tapper, among others, highlighted an email thread covering August 6 and 7, 2025, about “NTOC Names,” which refers to tips collected by the National Threat Operations Center, the bureau’s hub for receiving and vetting public tips regarding federal crimes. The thread includes Epstein-related tips and, in some cases, how federal authorities responded. One emailer notes that in one document, some rows have “yellow highlighting … for the salacious piece,” which appears to refer to the “Prominent Names” slide. (An emailer in July asks for “a sentence or two” for each of the names with “salacious statements.”)  

Several tips mention that federal authorities were unable to follow up with the tipsters or verify their stories; those items were not on the “Prominent Names” slide. But one entry on Trump tracks what’s in the slide:  

[REDACTED] reported an unidentified female friend who was forced to perform oral sex on President Trump approximately 35 years ago in NJ. The friend told [REDACTED] that she was approximately 13-14 years old when this occurred, and the friend allegedly bit President Trump while performing oral sex. The friend was allegedly hit in the face after she laughed about biting President Trump. The friend said she was also abused by Epstein. 

The table’s “Response” column notes, “Spoke with caller who identified [REDACTED] as friend. Lead was sent to Washington Office to conduct interview.” 

Some media outlets, including The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Daily Beast, and Mediaite, covered the allegation. But most reporters elided the bit-penis-hit-in-the-face allegation in favor of vague references to multiple unsubstantiated claims while the Justice Department sought to inoculate the president by stating, “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.” The media’s attention gravitated to other famous names mentioned in the Epstein files, regardless of whether the files contained evidence of sexual misconduct. Several prominent figures have since resigned from their positions due to their associations with Epstein. 

Then, starting on February 15,  Roger Sollenberger, the independent journalist, pieced together information indicating that the FBI interviewed the accuser four times in 2019. Sollenberger suggests this means that the FBI found her “credible.” Furthermore, records of three of those interviews were not in the Epstein Files release. He also found a “Jane Doe 4” in a lawsuit against Epstein with similar biographical details, making similar allegations against an unnamed Epstein friend. Jane Doe 4 was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program, but the suit nonetheless appears to have led to a settlement for her from Epstein. 

Bolstering the case that the FBI found the accuser credible, Nina Burleigh and Katie Chenoweth, the independent journalists, noted that, uniquely, her redacted name is routinely followed by the phrase, “PROTECT SOURCE,” which is “typically used for high-risk informants such as mafia rats.” 

This week, major news outlets NPR, CNN, and The New York Times corroborated Sollenberger’s reporting and started asking about seemingly missing documents in the last Epstein disclosure. House Democrats vowed to investigate. NPR reported: 

The Justice Department has withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that President Trump sexually abused a minor. . .It also removed some documents from the public database where accusations against Jeffrey Epstein also mention Trump. Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be more than 50 pages of FBI interviews, as well as notes from conversations with a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago when she was a minor. 

The NPR report also went on to say: 

Following NPR’s reporting, the House Oversight Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., released a statement about the missing files. “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,” Garcia stated.  

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have already been investigating this allegation against the president and will now open a parallel investigation into the DOJ’s decision not to release these particular documents. 

For its part, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that the Justice Department is “reviewing whether it improperly withheld some Epstein files.” 

At a time when the president resorts to litigation to suppress unfavorable news coverage—see his since-settled suits against ABC and CBS—it’s good to see traditional media dig into this story. However, just repeating the work of an independent journalist on Substack is not sufficient. We don’t have enough evidence to conclude guilt. But we have more than enough circumstantial evidence—combined with a disturbing pattern of behavior—for reporters to press Trump and his allies with the same intensity of coverage media outlets have devoted to others in the Epstein files who merely exchanged chummy emails.  

Consider Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas and the intense questioning of him after alleged texts showed him making sexual remarks to a staffer, with whom he is accused of having an affair before she committed suicide. (The Republican has denied the affair.) Reporters repeatedly ask Gonzales if he will resign, and he says he won’t. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has been asked if Gonzales should resign. (The Louisiana Republican has sidestepped the question, pointing to next week’s Texas primary as a forum for adjudication). At least five of Gonzales’s fellow House Republicans—including three who signed the discharge petition leading to the Epstein files being made public—have said he should resign.  

Gonzales has not been proven guilty, but the circumstantial evidence merits the media swarm. The same goes for the Trump allegation, considering his history.  

Again, Trump has been found liable by a jury for sexual abuse that, according to the presiding judge, was tantamount to rape. He was found guilty of criminal fraud for a payoff to silence a mistress. His first wife, Ivana Trump, gave a deposition during divorce proceeding accusing him of a violent rape that left her crying (although when the contents of the deposition were about to be published in a book, and she issued a statement saying that while “as a woman, I felt violated” and she called it rape in the deposition, she didn’t want the word interpreted in “a literal or criminal sense.”). On the infamous Access Hollywood tape, we heard Trump say, “I just start kissing them … I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.” Trump once owned the Miss Teen USA pageant, and according to contestants, he would often enter the dressing room while underage girls were changing. (Trump, who also owned two other pageants, bragged about entering the contestants’ dressing rooms.) More than two dozen women have accused him of sexual misconduct. 

Donald J. Trump is not someone who has earned the benefit of the doubt.  

Reporters should keep pressing the Justice Department to release any related files. They should ask Trump and his press aides directly about the allegations and whether they warrant resignation, not once but repeatedly. As with Gonzales, Speaker Johnson should be asked if Trump should resign, as should other leading Congressional Republicans. And those Republicans who demanded the Epstein files be released and have demanded Gonzales’s resignation should be asked if they will hold Trump to the same standard.  

Trump exhibits scandalous behavior daily, which numbs our collective senses. But we have evidence suggesting perhaps one of the biggest scandals of all time. The media should act accordingly. 

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