A newly publicized FBI interview summary has revived scrutiny of Donald Trump’s past contacts with Florida investigators who pursued Jeffrey Epstein in the mid-2000s, as the Justice Department faces renewed political pressure over its ongoing release of Epstein-related records.
The episode centers on an FBI account of a 2019 interview with former Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter, which describes Reiter telling agents that Trump called him during the earlier investigation and expressed support for stopping Epstein, according to reporting by ABC News.
What the FBI interview summary says
According to ABC News, the FBI document summarizes Reiter’s recollection that Trump contacted the Palm Beach Police Department around July 2006, after details of the local investigation became public, and said words to the effect of “thank goodness you’re stopping him” and that people had long known about Epstein’s conduct. The summary also states that Trump urged investigators to focus on Ghislaine Maxwell, describing her as Epstein’s “operative” and “evil,” ABC reported.
A Justice Department official told ABC News the agency was not aware of corroborating evidence that Trump contacted law enforcement at the time, and the White House press secretary said she did not know whether the call occurred, while reiterating Trump’s longstanding claim that he cut ties with Epstein years earlier.
Epstein files release and the Justice Department’s latest tranche
The renewed attention comes as the Justice Department says it has released nearly 3.5 million pages in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in a tranche dated Jan. 30, 2026, according to the department’s press release.
The department said materials not produced were withheld for reasons including duplicates, privilege, statutory exceptions, or irrelevance to Epstein or Maxwell case files, and said it instructed reviewers to limit redactions to protect victims and families.
Lawmakers dispute redactions and oversight access
Democratic lawmakers have continued to challenge the administration’s handling of the disclosures, arguing that the release remains incomplete or improperly redacted. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has urged Senate action aimed at enforcing the law’s requirements, according to a statement posted by Senate Democrats.
Separately, Rep. Jamie Raskin alleged the Justice Department monitored lawmakers’ searches while they reviewed Epstein files at a DOJ facility and called for an inspector general review, the Associated Press reported.
Political claims collide with unresolved questions
The new spotlight on the 2006-era allegation has also fueled partisan arguments over how much Trump did—or did not—assist investigators before he entered office. The FBI interview summary described by ABC News is not presented as a contemporaneous record of a 2006 call, but as an account of what Reiter told investigators in 2019; officials have said they are not aware of independent confirmation of the contact.
The Justice Department, for its part, has said the public release may include false or misleading submissions that were sent to the FBI and included in the production responsive to the law, while maintaining that notable individuals were not redacted from the files that were released