UNCONFIRMED: the Post and Courier verified biographical and contextual details of the accuser's account; the core allegation against Trump has not been corroborated.
The Post and Courier, a Charleston, South Carolina newspaper, conducted an extensive records-based investigation and independently verified multiple biographical and contextual details from the FBI testimony of a woman who accused Trump and Epstein of sexually assaulting her when she was 13 years old.
Reporters Marilyn W. Thompson and Mitchell Black used court records, business records, police reports, and government records from multiple states to confirm details the accuser provided during four FBI interviews in 2019. The corroborated facts include: the identity and background of a third accused assailant named Jimmy Atkins (an Epstein business associate on Hilton Head Island whose Ohio college background, real estate business, and physical description all matched); the accuser's mother's employment at a Hilton Head real estate firm connected to Atkins; the mother's embezzlement conviction and prison time (the accuser told the FBI that Epstein blackmailed her mother using underage photos); a Rick James concert in Savannah that matched the time period described; and the family's relocation to the West Coast.
The investigation does not directly corroborate the sexual assault allegations against Trump. What it establishes is that the accuser was truthful about verifiable facts in her FBI testimony — details that can be independently checked. The principle: if a witness is truthful about checkable facts, it lends weight to claims about details that cannot be independently verified.
The accuser told the FBI that Trump said “Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be” before assaulting her. Trump's White House has called the allegations “completely baseless.” AG Pam Bondi said there was “no evidence” connecting Trump to Epstein's crimes — but the DOJ had previously withheld 50+ pages of the accuser's FBI interview records before being forced to release them.