The Department of Justice on Thursday released three previously withheld FBI interview reports from 2019 related to a woman who made uncorroborated allegations that she was abused by Donald Trump in the 1980s, when she was a minor.

In a statement on social media, the Department of Justice said the interview summaries — known as FBI 302 reports — were initially withheld from the January release of millions of pages of DOJ documents related to Jeffrey Epstein because they were believed to be duplicative of other documents.

“What we found through extensive review is that a published 302 — additionally disclosed in a published spreadsheet — had subsequent 302s that were coded as ‘duplicative.’ After this was brought to our attention, we reviewed the entire batch with the similar coding and discovered 15 documents were incorrectly coded as duplicative,” the DOJ account said.

The statement did not appear to explain why, beyond possible human error, the records were marked as duplicative. As of Thursday evening, the DOJ database still does not include the handwritten notes from the interviews themselves.

According to the reports, the FBI interviewed the woman four times between July and October 2019. During each of the interviews with the woman, whose identity is redacted, she made allegations of abuse against Epstein.

In her second interview with federal investigators, she claimed that Epstein once took her to either New York or New Jersey where he introduced to Trump when she was between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. According to the report, she claimed Trump abused her during that trip.

In the fourth interview in October 2019, the woman declined to provide additional details about the alleged interaction with Trump when asked by agents, according to the summary of that interview.

Her statements to the federal agents allege that the incident with Trump took place in the early-to-mid 1980s — a period when Epstein and Trump did not appear to be in contact.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Epstein or any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.

In her initial interview with the FBI, the woman claims she was sexually abused by Epstein after being hired for what she thought was a babysitting job, but she said there were no children present. Similar abuse occurred, she said, on several more occasions, according to the summary of the first report, which was released by the DOJ in January.

The witness said multiple alleged incidents with Epstein took place in South Carolina, a location not known to have been frequented by Epstein. The timing of the allegations would place them two decades before law enforcement in Florida began investigating Epstein for sexual exploitation of minors.

Before the additional records were released Thursday, Congressional Democrats had accused the Justice Department of illegally withholding the documents to protect the president.

“It is unconscionable, it is illegal, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president need to answer where those files are,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, D-Calif. said last week.

In a statement in January, the Department of Justice said that some investigative files in the massive tranche released would include unsubstantiated claims about Trump.

“Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the statement said.

NEW YORK — Beast Industries fired a MrBeast video editor this week following accusations of insider trading by the prediction market operator Kalshi.

Kalshi announced last month that a user who traded about $4,000 on streaming markets related to MrBeast videos with “near-perfect” success turned out to be an employee of Beast Industries who “likely had access to material non-public information.” Kalshi suspended the editor from its platform for two years, fined him $20,000 and alerted federal regulators.

A spokesperson for Beast Industries, founded by Jimmy Donaldson, said the roughly 500-person company has “no tolerance for this behavior” and has initiated an independent investigation. Jeff Housenbold, the company’s president and CEO, told CNBC that he’d taken action several months ago to bar trading by MrBeast employees and contestants for Beast Games, Donaldson’s popular Amazon Prime reality-competition show.

The incident places YouTube’s biggest channel, which rose to fame with Donaldson’s stunt-based challenges often involving large cash giveaways, in the middle of debates over whether prediction markets are a form of gambling and how they are regulated. Kalshi is one of several popular platforms that allow participants to wager on the probable outcome of events. Bets can be placed on everything from the Super Bowl halftime show to the downfall of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The Beast Industries spokesperson called on Kalshi and other exchanges to communicate their findings more openly. Housenbold, who previously sat on the board of the casino company Caesars Entertainment, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that prediction markets are “ripe for abuse.” The practice certainly looks like gambling, he said, adding that the government must make that determination.

Prediction markets are currently regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and not state gambling authorities. Critics have said prediction markets and regulators need to do more to prevent instances of insider trading.

“You could be a third-party cameraman on set and know what the first song in the rehearsal is for a singer. You can be the person reviewing a script and knowing what the end result is,” Housenbold said. “There’s so much information out there and it’s asymmetric and people are taking advantage of that.”

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The State Department announced on Wednesday that a charter flight for American citizens stuck in the Middle East was en route to the United States — days after the war with Iran left thousands of American travelers stranded as combat operations led to the closure of airspace around the region.

The department said the flight is “part of our ongoing efforts to assist Americans return home” and said additional flights will be departing from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The move comes as hundreds of thousands of Americans stranded across the Middle East are trying to leave the region, faced with canceled flights and other travel disruptions. 

Chris Elliott, a pastor from Lexington, North Carolina, told ABC News that he and his family were stranded while visiting sites in Jerusalem. He said they ended up in a bomb shelter as sirens sounded and incoming missiles were intercepted.

“We want Americans to be on American soil right now,” Elliott said.

Eliott’s daughter, Riley, said it’s been frustrating and frightening to be forced to shelter in place since the joint U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran began on Saturday.

“The scariest for me was trying to go to bed at night and then being woken up by the sounds of sirens,” Riley Elliott told ABC News.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory on Monday, three days into the military operation, urging Americans to immediately leave 14 countries in the region via commercial flights, but stranded U.S. citizens have said that’s become extremely difficult, given the significant disruptions to air travel.

The Trump administration is facing some criticism for apparently not having a plan in place to get American citizens out of harm’s way ahead of the joint operation.

Responding to a question on Tuesday from ABC News about why so many Americans became stuck in the Middle East absent any advance warning of the attack on Iran, President Donald Trump said, “Well, because it happened all very quickly.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Wednesday press briefing that the U.S. did communicate the danger of traveling to the region.

“There was many signs, put out by the State Department,” Leavitt said. “The secretary of state issued level four travel advisories dating back to January for many of these countries in the region,” adding that they were “advising extreme caution and do not travel alerts to Americans in the region.”

However, a review of travel advisories issued by the State Department indicates that prior to the start of the conflict, of the the 14 countries American travelers were later urged to depart, eight of them were only listed at a Level 1 or Level 2 — meaning to exercise normal precautions or increased caution.

Leavitt also claimed that since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, over 17,500 Americans “have safely returned home from the Middle East, with over 8,500 American citizens returning home to the United States just yesterday alone.”

Multiple U.S. embassies in the region, including some that have been attacked, have said they are unable to help citizens trying to leave.

“Our embassies and our diplomatic facilities are under direct attack from a terroristic regime,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday in Washington.

Asked if there were plans in place to evacuate Americans before the attack took place, Rubio said, “That’s the plan we’re trying to carry out.”

“The problem is, or the challenge we are facing, is airspace closures,” Rubio said, adding that some airports were closed after being hit in strikes. “So, that’s a challenge, but rest assured, we are confident that we are going to be able to assist every American.”

Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News that he’s been stuck in his hotel in Doha, Qatar, since the military operation began. He said the unexpected experience of being in a war has left him “frustrated, anxious” and feeling helpless.

“How do you expect us to leave a country where the airspace is closed? People are really stranded here,” Turner said in a self-video recorded on Tuesday. “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.”

American Lisa Butler said the military conflict left her and her family, who were part of a large travel group, stranded in Abu Dhabi before they were evacuated to Dubai.

“We were standing … outside of this beautiful mosque, looking up in the sky and seeing these missiles that have been intercepted,” Butler told ABC News about how she and her family learned while in Abu Dhabi that they were vulnerable to a major military conflict breaking out in the region.

Oliver Sims, an American from Texas, told ABC News that he has been stuck in Qatar.

“I was just a few minutes ago, listening to some explosions that are going off above my head,” Sims said. “And, you know, I know that officials have said use commercial means, but there are really no commercial means here for us to use. So it’s really difficult to try and figure out a way out.”

Asked to describe conditions in Qatar, Sims said that he has been awakened at night by “extremely loud explosions” that shook the windows of his hotel room.

“I looked out my window and I saw a bunch of debris that was raining down outside of my hotel window,” Sims said. “And it’s very jarring, too, because it’s not just how loud it is, just how it actually physically shakes you. The rumbling is really, really just as violent.”

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston and Jack Moore contributed to this report.

SEOUL, South Korea — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected his new destroyer for two straight days ahead of its commissioning and observed a test of cruise missiles fired from the warship, vowing to accelerate the nuclear-armament of his navy, state media said Thursday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim, during his visits to the western shipyard of Nampo on Tuesday and Wednesday, also inspected the construction of a third destroyer of the same class as his 5,000-ton warship, the Choe Hyon, first unveiled in April 2025.

Kim has hailed the development of Choe Hyon as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military. State media says the ship is designed to handle various weapons systems, including antiair and anti-naval weapons, as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. South Korean military officials and experts say Choe Hyon was likely built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some have raised doubts about whether it’s ready for active service.

North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class in May last year, but it was damaged during a botched launching ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin, triggering a furious reaction from Kim, who called the failure “criminal.” North Korea has said the new destroyer, named Kang Kon, was relaunched in June after repair, but outside experts have questioned whether the ship is fully operational.

After observing Choe Hyon’s sea trials on Tuesday, Kim said the ship met operational requirements and called it a symbol of the country’s expanding naval capabilities. He called for building two warships a year over the next five years of the same or higher class as the Choe Hyon.

Kim came back Wednesday to observe a test launch of cruise missiles from the Choe Hyon. State media published photos of him watching from shore as several projectiles rose from the vessel in plumes of white smoke and described the weapons as “strategic,” a term used for nuclear-capable systems.

After years of spurring ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more toward naval capabilities, including an ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. KCNA said the third destroyer under construction at the Nampo shipyard is expected to be completed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding anniversary in October.

Naval capabilities were also a key focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at last month’s Workers’ Party congress, which included calls for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of being launched from underwater.

Kim on Tuesday claimed that his efforts to arm his navy with nuclear weapons were “making satisfactory” progress. He said those purported advancements would “constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty, something that we have not achieved for half a century.”

KCNA did not elaborate on what Kim meant. Some analysts say North Korea may be preparing to formally declare a maritime boundary that could encroach on waters controlled by rival South Korea.

As inter-Korean tensions worsen, Kim has repeatedly said he does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The poorly drawn western sea boundary has been the site of several deadly naval clashes in past years.

At the party congress, Kim doubled down on plans to expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which already is equipped with various weapons systems threatening the United States and U.S. allies in Asia, and confirmed his hard-line view of rival South Korea.

But he left the door open for dialogue with the Trump administration, reiterating Pyongyang’s demand that Washington drop its insistence on denuclearization as a precondition for resuming long-stalled talks.

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic-led Iran war powers resolution that called for congressional approval for military action against Iran.

The procedural vote, which directed the removal of United States armed forces from hostilities within or against Iran that have not been authorized by Congress, failed by a vote of 47 to 53.

Sen. Rand Paul, who co-sponsored the resolution, was the only Republican to cast a vote in favor of it. Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote against it. 

This resolution will not go forward in the Senate, though Democrats have left open the possibility of filling another Iran war powers resolution in the future.

It comes after recent U.S. strikes on Iran that killed several Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran.

Democrats who forced the vote said Wednesday afternoon’s vote was important to get lawmakers on the record about the president’s authority to take military action in Iran. 

“Today every senator, every single one, will pick a side: Do you stand with the American people who are exhausted of forever wars in the Middle East? Or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us headfirst into another war?” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday morning.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who co-sponsored the bill, said acts of war need congressional approval.

“We can’t afford to hide under a desk and let any president, Democrat or Republican, send our best and brightest, our own kids, into war to risk their lives unless we have debated it, we have determine it is in the national interest, we have voted and thereby put our signature and our thumb print on the notion that it’s worth sending our best and brightest to risk their lives,” Kaine said.

A number of Republican senators supported the Trump administration’s actions in Iran and bashed the resolution.

Republican Whip John Barrasso said Wednesday that the resolution would do nothing by “tie” President Donald Trump’s hands in Iran.

“Democrats would rather obstruct President Trump than obliterate Iran’s national nuclear program. Let that sink in. That’s what the Democrats are trying to do. They want to use the war powers act as a partisan battering ram,” Barrasso said. “They are coming to the Senate floor today to try to tie President Trump’s hands in a situation in Iran that is making America safer and making the world safer and the Democrats are undermining our security at home.”

Earlier this year, a similar resolution concerning military action in Venezuela passed an initial procedural test vote when a small handful of Republican senators voted with Democrats to move it forward. Some of those Republicans were ultimately swayed to revoke their support for that legislation during a vote on final passage, and the bill was ultimately defeated by Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote.

The House is set to vote on its own war powers resolution later this week. The non-binding measure, introduced by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, would not be subject to the president’s signature or veto if it passed both houses of Congress.

On Wednesday, Johnson expressed confidence that Republicans will defeat the House’s war powers resolution, despite some reservations expressed by a handful of conservatives. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House, so it would only take a few defections for the bill to pass.

“I think passage of a war powers resolution right now would be a terrible, dangerous idea,” Johnson warned. “It would empower our enemies. It would kneecap our own forces, and it would take the ability of the U.S. military and the commander in chief away from completing this critical mission to keep everybody safe.”

ABC News’ John Parkinson and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.

A U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine on Tuesday sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean using a single torpedo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Wednesday, saying this was the first time since World War II that an American submarine has sunk an enemy vessel.

“Yesterday in the Indian Ocean … an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo.”

A video of what the Pentagon said was taken from the U.S. sub’s periscope was shown at his briefing.

The vessel, identified by Sri Lankan officials as the IRIS Dena, went down with 180 people aboard, the AP reported. The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 survivors, according to the AP.

The USS Torsk fired the last American torpedoes of World War II on Aug. 14, 1945, sinking two Japanese defense frigates in the Sea of Japan, one day before Japan surrendered.

Hegseth described the strike on the Iranian ship as a “quiet death.” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a single Mark 48 torpedo, a sophisticated munition specifically designed to sink ships, achieved “immediate effect.” 

The Pentagon video of the strike shows the ship blown in half before quickly sinking to the bottom of the sea.

“I want to remind everybody that this is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach,” Caine said. “To hunt, find and kill an out of area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale.”

Hegseth identified the ship as being nicknamed the “Soleimani,” the senior general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps killed in a 2020 U.S. airstrike in Baghdad ordered by President Donald Trump.

“Last night, we sunk their prized ship, the Soleimani,” Hegseth said. “Looks like POTUS got him twice.”

The IRIS Dena had been operating in in the region after participating in a multinational training exercise hosted by the Indian Navy in February, in which 74 nations, including the U.S., took part, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

ABC News projects Texas Sen. John Cornyn will face a runoff against state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Senate primaries are among those in the state that have national implications and will shed insight into American attitudes one year into President Donald Trump’s second term.

Trump has made it clear that he is keeping a close eye on the state, announcing endorsements in select House races but staying on the sidelines for the Senate race.

State significance

The race between Cornyn, who is seeking his fifth term in the Senate, and Paxton is the “most expensive Senate primary on record,” according to tracking firm AdImpact, with over $122 million dedicated to ad spending and reservations.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Jasmine Crockett is facing off against state Rep. James Talarico, two rising stars in the Democratic Party who hope to flip the seat for the first time in decades.

This election also marks the moment in which redistricting will begin to play out. Following Trump’s encouragement last summer, Texas spearheaded the redistricting wars — triggering a Supreme Court case, sparking national debate over mid-decade gerrymandering, and prompting other states to follow suit.

Now, newly drawn maps are likely to deliver five GOP pickups for the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority.

While Texas’ 23rd Congressional District is expected to stay red, the showdown between Trump-endorsed incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales and Brandon Herrera will be one to watch, especially after multiple Republicans have called upon Gonzales to resign following an alleged relationship with his former staffer who died by suicide.

In the gubernatorial race, ABC News projects Trump-endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for his fourth term in a state where governors do not have term limits, will face state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate.

The United States and Ecuador conducted joint military operations against “designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador,” U.S. Southern Command announced on Tuesday.

This marks the first time that the U.S. military has engaged in a land operation against South American drug cartels.

Until now, the U.S. military had only carried out airstrikes targeting smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The Pentagon on Tuesday identified four of the six American troops killed in the opening hours of the war with Iran.

Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Spc. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, died Saturday in Kuwait from an Iranian drone attack. 

All soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit based in Des Moines, Iowa. 

All six died in the same attack at Shuaiba port in Kuwait, a commercial harbor that doubles as a logistics hub through which the U.S. military ships tactical vehicles and supplies into the region.

The other two names are being withheld until a day after the next of kin have been notified. An additional 18 service members were wounded in the strike. 

The six represent the first Americans killed in action in the joint U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

The joint U.S.-Israel campaign entered its fourth day Tuesday, with American forces having struck more than 1,700 targets inside Iran as fighting spread across at least a dozen countries.

Trump and top Pentagon officials warned the toll is expected to rise.

“We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday.