A federal judge has given the Justice Department a firm deadline to publish handwritten FBI notes on allegations against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has denied the claims.
A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to publish handwritten FBI notes from interviews with a woman who accused Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her when she was a young teenager.
The order came on November 9 from Senior US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. Unless it is appealed, the notes must be added to the department’s online Epstein Library by November 23.
What the notes contain
The handwritten notes were used to prepare three FBI reports, known as Form 302s, from interviews carried out in 2019. In those interviews, the woman alleged that she was sexually abused and physically assaulted by Trump, Epstein and others when she was between 13 and 15 years old.
The typed reports from some of the interviews have already been released, but the underlying notes have not.
The Justice Department had argued that handwritten material was difficult to redact, which Judge Sullivan didn’t accept. Lawyers for the journalist behind the case pointed out that handwritten notes from around 100 other interviews had already been made public with redactions.
Attorney General Todd Blanche now has 14 days from the date of the order to publish them.
The fight over the Epstein files
The case, Katie Phang v. Todd Blanche, was brought by journalist and lawyer Katie Phang. She claims the department has not properly followed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law on November 19, 2025.
The law requires the government to release its records on Epstein, with redactions to protect victims. On January 30, 2026, the Justice Department said it had published millions of pages of documents.
Even if the notes are released, they will not show whether the allegations are true. They are a record of what the woman told investigators.
Other claims against Trump
The ruling comes weeks after another allegation against the president was made public.
In a report released on October 26, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee laid out claims from Beatrice Keul, a former Miss Switzerland contestant. She alleges that Trump raped her at New York’s Plaza Hotel in 1993.
Keul also claims Trump and Epstein targeted young women aged 16 to 22 during the “Donald J. Trump American Dream Pageant,” which she called a “hunting ground.”
The White House has rejected the claims. A spokesperson said “none of these allegations are true” and called the report a political attack on the president.
No charges have been brought in connection with any of the allegations.
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