Jimmy Kimmel
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Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel used his Wednesday monologue to question why the Justice Department has not released 53 pages of FBI documents tied to sexual abuse allegations against President Donald Trump, asking his audience: 'Why are they being allowed to hide this stuff?'

The segment aired on Jimmy Kimmel Live a day after NPR published an investigation finding that the Justice Department had withheld - and in some cases removed - files from the public Epstein database that relate to a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. The FBI conducted four interviews with the woman in 2019. Only the first, dated 24 July 2019 and containing no mention of Trump, has been published.

'The woman said she was 13 when she met Trump,' Kimmel said. 'The FBI interviewed her four times in 2019. The details of those interviews are, for reasons that still haven't been explained, unavailable.'

He added that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee had reviewed the documents and confirmed they exist. 'They're supposed to release the files,' he said. 'If these interviews were on Hunter Biden's laptop we'd know every word of them.' Kimmel went on to say the president should instruct officials to release the relevant material to demonstrate his innocence: 'The best thing for President Trump, who I'm sure did nothing wrong, is to order them to un-redact his name and release all of the Trump-Epstein files so he can prove how unbelievably innocent he is.'

Democrats Confirm Files Were Withheld From Public Database

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, confirmed after NPR's report that he had personally reviewed unredacted evidence logs at the Justice Department.

'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 said in a statement. He added that Democrats would open a parallel investigation into the department's handling of the files.

According to NPR's review of serial numbers stamped onto documents in the Epstein files database, FBI case records, and discovery logs, roughly 53 pages of interview documents and notes are catalogued by the Justice Department but have not been shared with the public.

NPR's investigation also identified a second woman whose accounts, describing being taken to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club as a minor while being abused by Epstein, were briefly removed from the database before being restored on 19 February. An interview with the woman's mother, which referred to Trump visiting Epstein's home, remained offline at the time of publication.

White House and DOJ Say No Records Were Withheld for Political Reasons

The White House rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told NPR that Trump 'has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein' and that by signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act and cooperating with congressional subpoenas, he 'has done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him.'

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche addressed the matter directly in a 14 February letter to members of Congress, stating that no records had been withheld or redacted 'on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.' A Justice Department spokeswoman later told NPR that any unpublished files were either privileged, duplicates, or related to an ongoing federal investigation.

The department said it is working to address concerns from victims and to apply additional redactions of personally identifiable information flagged across the broader files release, which has now run to more than three million pages.

Stephen Colbert covered the same topic on The Late Show on Wednesday. 'That the files are missing should be the biggest story in the world,' he said, adding: 'It's totally on brand for the DOJ, especially this DOJ, to be protecting Trump.'

Trump has made no direct public comment on the withheld documents. The White House previously pointed to a Justice Department statement describing the Epstein files as containing 'untrue and sensationalist claims' about the president.

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