Published on Sun, Nov 1, 2026 | Last updated Sun, Nov 1, 2026 12:05 UTC, 1,128 words | 5 min read | Revision: 1

The Transparency Files are a series of articles based on the publicly released Epstein Files.

Through Trump’s Trail of Trauma, Part 3: Jill Harth

She sued Trump in 1997 over an assault at Mar-a-Lago. Epstein later passed her story to writers

[Trigger warning: this article retells allegations of sexual assault. Please look after yourself.]

Part 3 of 5. Five women named by the House Judiciary Democrats’ report of Monday, October 26, 2026 as direct accusers of Trump.

TLDR; In a 1997 lawsuit Harth said Trump forced her into his daughter’s bedroom at Mar-a-Lago in January 1993 and kissed, fondled and restrained her. Her former partner says Trump and Epstein were the only men at the party. Of the five women, she is the one with a court filing from the 1990s. Epstein’s own files hold her story twice.

The HJC October 2026 report is from the minority staff of Rep. Jamie Raskin on the House Judiciary Committee. The full committee did not adopt it. It is a partisan document. It calls Harth “one of the first women to accuse him of sexual assault” (p. 20). The White House told Newsweek: “None of these allegations are true.”

Her account

In the early 1990s Harth recruited young models for Trump’s “Calendar Girl” competitions, Keul among them. She and her then-partner, George Houraney, were pursuing a business relationship with Trump.

Her complaint, filed on Friday, April 25, 1997 (Harth v. Trump, S.D.N.Y. No. 97 Civ. 3135), says, as the report quotes it, that at a 1993 party Trump “forcefully removed” her from the “public areas of Mar-a-Lago and forced [her] into a bedroom belonging to defendant’s daughter Ivanka, wherein [Trump] forcibly kissed, fondled, and restrained [Harth] from leaving, against [Harth’s] will and despite her protests.”

She later described the moment, as quoted in a press summary in Epstein’s email: “He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” and “I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’”

Houraney told the New York Times that the party was full of models, and that Trump and Epstein appeared to be the only two men there.

The report says the complaint also describes how, before dawn that night, Trump went uninvited into the bedroom of a young model. When she woke and asked why he was in her bed, he replied: “You said you don’t sleep with men on the first date. Now it’s the second date and here I am!”

The paper trail

The press summary in Epstein’s email dates the Mar-a-Lago incident to Sunday, January 24, 1993 (EFTA01013538). The report’s body, describing the complaint, says 1993. Its summary on p. 3 says 1994.

She withdrew the suit as a condition of a settlement in Houraney’s separate contract case against Trump. She reaffirmed her account in 2016, as Slate and Fortune reported. A 2016 press printout in Epstein’s files says the case record was sealed. It shows her public comments that year were mixed: she told Law Newz “I have nothing but good things to say about Donald”, and told the Guardian she stood by her 1997 allegations (EFTA01433755 (torrent)).

On Tuesday, December 8, 2015, Epstein asked a New York Times reporter, Landon Thomas Jr.: “would you like photso of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.” Thomas replied “Yes!!!”, and Epstein sent the name of a young model, with a contact the House Oversight Committee’s November 2025 release redacts (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031604). The report identifies her as the model in Harth’s complaint (p. 21).

On Saturday, December 15, 2018, replying to Michael Wolff, he pasted in a press summary of Harth’s allegation, down to Ivanka’s bedroom (EFTA01013538 (archive)). That summary says her suit accused Trump of “attempted rape”. The story had been public since 1997.

What DOJ’s releases leave out

Harth reaches Epstein’s emails through press coverage he collected and forwarded. Her complaint is not in DOJ’s January 2026 release. Neither are Maria Farmer’s 1996 and 2006 FBI reports (report p. 27). DOJ held back another accuser’s FBI interviews until Thursday, March 5, 2026, after saying they had been “incorrectly coded as duplicative” (ABC News). DOJ also re-redacted files after publishing them (DOJ Post-Release Re-Redactions, February 2026).

Why this matters

Harth’s complaint was filed on Friday, April 25, 1997, long before Trump ran for office. Houraney says Trump and Epstein appeared to be the only two men at that party. Epstein, the other man there, kept returning to it. On Tuesday, December 8, 2015 he offered a New York Times reporter “photso of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen” and sent the contact of a young model the report identifies as the model in Harth’s complaint. His files then hold a 2016 press printout of her suit, and on Saturday, December 15, 2018 he pasted a press summary of it to Wolff.

DOJ’s January 2026 release holds the press coverage of her case that Epstein kept, and not the complaint itself. It also leaves out Maria Farmer’s FBI reports. I think we are looking at the tip of the iceberg: on DOJ’s public pages, the video and audio files appear as one-page placeholders reading “No Images Produced”.

I think a foreign power may hold some of that material and use it to push Trump into wars fought for whoever holds it.

If you vote for candidates who support impeaching and removing Trump, you can help prevent that escalation and give the victims, Harth among them, a path to justice.

Sources

Document	Description	Dataset
EFTA01013538 (archive)	Epstein to Wolff, Sat, Dec 15, 2018, pasting a press summary of the Harth allegation	DS9
EFTA01433755 (torrent)	2016 press printout summarising Harth’s 1997 suit	DS10
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031604	Epstein to Landon Thomas Jr., Tue, Dec 8, 2015 (“photso of donald and girls in bikinis”)	House Oversight Committee, November 2025 release

The report. House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff, “‘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”, Mon, Oct 26, 2026, pp. 3, 20-21, 27. Full report (PDF).

External. Harth v. Trump, S.D.N.Y. No. 97 Civ. 3135, filed Fri, Apr 25, 1997, as quoted by the report. Slate, Fri, Oct 7, 2016 and Fortune, Thu, Jul 21, 2016 (Harth reaffirming her account). New York Times, Sat, Jul 19, 2025, as cited by the report. ABC News, Fri, Mar 6, 2026 (DOJ’s “incorrectly coded” statement). Newsweek, Mon, Oct 26, 2026 (White House response).

Our own working notes: report cover sheet, Jill Harth.