House Judiciary Democrats' Staff Report Alleges Trump Took Part in Epstein's Abuse; White House Denies It

House Judiciary Committee Democrats released an unsigned staff report today, Oct. 26, accusing President Trump of being "an active participant" in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of young women in the mid-to-late 1990s. The document runs 50-plus pages (53, by one count) and carries the title "'We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey': The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ's Desperate Efforts to Cover it Up."

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the committee's ranking member, put his name on the release. The report itself is a staff product.

What the report alleges

The report details accounts from 11 women. According to the Democrats' own release, five of them directly accuse Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein's company or presence. Others, the release says, have indicated that Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell tried to traffic them to Trump.

With one exception, the incidents described occurred between 1992 and 1997 in New York and Palm Beach. Many of the women were tied to the modeling industry and to Paolo Zampolli, according to the report.

The report concludes that Trump and Zampolli "may have been co-conspirators" in Epstein's trafficking. Zampolli, the Democrats say, until recently served as a senior Trump administration official and diplomat. The report does not allege that either man has been charged.

Democrats say they drew on committee staff interviews, survivor accounts, FBI records and documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The report also compares Trump's public statements about Epstein with emails, deposition transcripts, and Trump's drawings and signatures. It says the comparison shows inconsistencies in what Trump has said about his awareness of Epstein's crimes.

"Donald Trump says he knew Jeffrey Epstein 'just like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.' Not exactly," Raskin said in a statement.

The Justice Department allegations

The second half of the report goes after Attorney General Todd Blanche. It alleges that he "may have engaged in criminal obstruction of justice while acting on a mission to protect Trump."

The report points to Blanche's meeting with Maxwell. It argues the meeting "potentially constituted witness tampering and obstruction of an official proceeding." It also cites what it calls Blanche's apparent instructions not to discuss a specific Epstein victim whose account, the Democrats say, implicates Trump.

Those are Democratic staff allegations. No charge or finding against Blanche has been announced.

The report's central demand is an independent special counsel. It wants one to investigate Trump, Epstein's other possible accomplices, and what it calls a DOJ cover-up. It also wants DOJ to give state and foreign prosecutors the evidence they need.

Trump's denial and the limits of the evidence

The White House rejected the report outright. "None of these allegations are true," spokeswoman Lauren Bis said. She called the report "a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum." She said Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago "because he was a creep, and he has been fully exonerated of anything related to Epstein."

Trump has denied for years that he engaged in sexual misconduct with any woman connected to Epstein. He has also said he knew nothing about Epstein's crimes.

MS NOW, which reviewed the report, found that it contains at least one entirely new allegation against Trump. According to MS NOW, the only support offered for that allegation is the woman's own conversations with committee staff. MS NOW also described several other allegations in the report as longstanding and unsubstantiated.

A Democratic committee source told MS NOW the report draws on public accounts and survivor conversations. The source would not say how many conversations took place, citing survivor privacy.

That privacy concern is real. It also means the public cannot yet test the new account against anything.

What comes next

Congress cannot appoint a special counsel. That power sits with the Justice Department, which Blanche runs. The Democrats' own report says there is "little reason" to expect the administration to name one.

Their fallback is oversight. The Daily Beast reports the party hopes lawmakers will use their legislative and oversight powers to force the issue.

That plan depends on the midterms. CBS News polling shows Democrats with a slight edge to win the House majority. Trump and former President Barack Obama have both been rallying in battleground states, including Michigan.

If Democrats win the chamber, subpoena power over the Epstein files and the Justice Department would pass to them. Whether the committee can back its five accusers' claims with evidence beyond testimony will then be tested in public. Blanche has not yet publicly answered the obstruction allegations.