What evidence exists in public court records about the Jane Doe/Katie Johnson claims involving Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein?
Executive summary
Public federal court records show a 2016 complaint filed under the name Katie Johnson against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (case 5:16-cv-00797), and the text of that complaint is publicly archived [1] [2]. Contemporary reporting and court dockets indicate the filing was later refiled and then dropped in 2016, but the records leave important factual questions — including corroboration and reasons for dismissal — unresolved in the public docket [3] [4].
1. The filing: a civil complaint in federal court and where it appears
A civil complaint bearing the name Katie Johnson was filed in April 2016 in the Central District of California against Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey E. Epstein; that docket entry and the complaint text are accessible through archival copies and docket services [1] [4] [2]. Court-listing metadata and IDB records confirm the case number 5:16-cv-00797 and its presence in public federal case databases maintained by projects such as CourtListener and the Federal Judicial Center [5] [2].
2. What the complaint alleges, according to the archived filing
The archived complaint alleges sexual abuse and conspiracy claims, asserting that the plaintiff — identified as Katie Johnson in the filing — was raped by Epstein and Trump in 1994 and seeks relief for sexual abuse under threat of harm and related causes of action; excerpts from the archived complaint state those allegations in plaintiff-drafted language and identify alleged witnesses such as a “Tiffany Doe” [1]. Public reporting summarizes similar language: outlets and summary pages describe an anonymous “Jane Doe” or pseudonymous “Katie Johnson” asserting she was raped at an underage party at Epstein’s Manhattan residence in 1994 [3] [6].
3. Procedural trace: refilings, docket notes and apparent termination
Public docket notes and news summaries indicate the complaint was filed in mid‑2016, was reportedly refiled in October 2016, and then was dropped in November 2016, though the docket copies preserved online show routine case entries such as notices of assignment and some returned mail to the plaintiff’s listed address [2] [3] [4]. Law‑oriented aggregators and archival pages track docket activity for the case but do not, in the materials provided here, include a full record of any final judgment or a detailed court opinion resolving the substantive allegations [7] [5].
4. Corroboration and contemporaneous reporting: what public documents and the press provide
Mainstream summaries and encyclopedic pages treating sexual‑misconduct allegations against Trump reference this filing and identify the plaintiff alternately as “Jane Doe” and “Katie Johnson,” noting the complaint’s serious allegations and its later withdrawal; PBS’s recap specifically reports that the suit was filed, refiled, and dropped in 2016 [3] [6]. The archived complaint itself contains plaintiff statements and named witness pseudonyms, but public court records in the provided sources do not include corroborating evidence, sworn testimony, or an adjudication on the merits available to readers here [1] [4].
5. Limits of the public court record and outstanding questions
The public documents available in these sources establish that a complaint was filed and that mainstream outlets reported its refiling and withdrawal, but they do not provide a court‑adopted factual finding or published rulings resolving the substantive rape allegations; the docket entries available include administrative items (assignments, returned mail) rather than a full dispositive opinion in the materials provided [2] [4] [5]. Consequently, while public filing and subsequent press reporting are documented, these records do not, by themselves, prove or disprove the underlying criminal allegations — they show an untested civil accusation and a procedural trail that ended in the case’s disappearance from active dockets in 2016 according to contemporaneous summaries [3] [1].