US President Donald Trump is now at odds with many core supporters over the Jeffrey Epstein case. Photo / Tierney L. Cross, the New York Times
By his own admission, United States President Donald Trump was friendly for at least 15 years with Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Their relationship is now under scrutiny after the Trump Administration decided to withhold parts of the files from the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein had many connections to rich and powerful people that both the right and the left suspect of being involved in the financier’s criminality.
Attorney-General Pam Bondi agreed to release some materials, including flight logs from Epstein’s private jets, but she held back others, including what officials described as child sexual abuse material.
The Department of Justice’s review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the department wrote in an unsigned July memo.
“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Trump has instructed Bondi to release only “credible” information, and suggested he is concerned that innocent people could be unfairly smeared if the full files are released.
He has condemned questions about his handling of the case as a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats and called Epstein a “creep”.
Epstein was convicted of paying teenage girls money to perform sex acts. He hanged himself in his cell in 2019, according to local and federal authorities.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein for nearly a decade to aid in his abuse.
Here’s what we know about Trump and Epstein:
1980s to early 2000s: Trump and Epstein are friendly
According to Trump’s telling, he and Epstein were friends for more than a decade, beginning in the 1980s.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Throughout those years, they were spotted together at parties.
In 1992, Trump threw a raucous party with NFL cheerleaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. NBC’s footage of the party shows Trump socialising with Epstein.
In 1997, Trump and Epstein attended a Victoria’s Secret “Angels” party together in New York.
1993 to 1997: Trump flies on Epstein’s private jets seven times
During the time they were friends, Trump’s name appeared seven times in Epstein’s flight logs.
Trump flew on Epstein’s private jets four times in 1993; once in 1994; once in 1995; and once in 1997, according to flight logs released as evidence in Maxwell’s trial.
The flights were between Palm Beach and New York, including a stop in Washington, DC.
The President has acknowledged travelling on Epstein’s plane but insisted he never accompanied him to his private island or engaged in any wrongdoing with the financier.
In fact, Trump has accused other politicians of being more deeply associated with Epstein.
Of former President Bill Clinton, Trump said: “Got a lot of problems coming up in my opinion with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein”.
Trump’s name and phone number were also included among the rich and powerful people written down in Epstein’s “little black book”.
2000: Mar-a-Lago plays a role in Epstein’s case
Mar-a-Lago played a key role in allegations against Epstein and Maxwell.
Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring who said she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” as a teenager to rich and powerful predators, was recruited into Epstein’s employment while at Mar-a-Lago, according to her account.
Giuffre, who was 16 at the time, said she was reading a massage therapy manual when she was approached by Maxwell and invited to become Epstein’s travelling masseuse. She said the two of them then groomed her to perform sexual services for wealthy men.
Giuffre accused Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite, of forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew of Britain. He flatly denied the accusations, but he relinquished his royal duties in 2019.
A widely published photograph showed Prince Andrew with his hand around her waist. He said he had no memory of the occasion.
Giuffre died by suicide in April.
2004: Trump and Epstein have a ‘falling out’ over a property fight
Two years after Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy”, the two men became rivals over an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion that had fallen into foreclosure. In a power struggle detailed by the Washington Post, Trump ultimately outbid Epstein for the property.
There is little public record of the two men interacting after that real estate battle.
Trump would later say in 2019 that he and Epstein had a “falling out” and hadn’t spoken in 15 years; the President declared himself “not a fan” of his former friend.
Not long after the property auction, police in Palm Beach fielded a tip that young women had been observed going in and out of Epstein’s home.
A few months later, in March 2005, police received a more substantive complaint, from a woman who said her teenage stepdaughter had been paid by Epstein to give him a massage while she was undressed, according to a police report. That led to an investigation that later identified at least a dozen potential victims.
An FBI and Florida police investigation led to his indictment in 2006.
Two years later, he pleaded guilty in state court to two criminal charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges that could have meant far more serious prison time.
2019: Epstein is charged with sex trafficking
The case against Epstein might have ended quietly there.
But the Miami Herald in 2018 unearthed new allegations against him and exposed the widespread nature of Epstein’s crimes. The Miami Herald detailed how he was able to manipulate the criminal justice system to shut down an FBI investigation and win immunity for any of his “potential co-conspirators”.
The Miami Herald identified about 80 women who say they were molested or otherwise sexually abused by Epstein from 2001 to 2006.
In 2019, Epstein was arrested by federal agents in the New York area, accused of trafficking girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them.
Facing decades in prison, local and federal authorities say he hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial.
2019 and 2020: Trump urges an investigation but expresses sympathy for Maxwell
Over the years, Trump at times seemed to promote the idea that rich and powerful people had engaged in nefarious behaviour with Epstein and might soon face justice.
“I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding,” Trump said of the Epstein case in 2019.
But he also expressed sympathy for Maxwell, whom he knew socially.
“I do wish her well. I’m not looking for anything bad for her,” Trump said in interview with Jonathan Swan, then of Axios, on HBO in 2020.
2024: Trump expresses mixed feelings about releasing files
While running for office in 2024, Trump expressed mixed feelings about whether he would release files in the Epstein case.
“I guess I would,” he told Fox News, before beginning to back off that claim. “I think that less so because you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”
2025: Trump lashes out at critics
Upon taking office, Trump appointed leaders of the Justice Department and FBI who had promised his right-wing base they would be getting to the bottom of the Epstein investigation.
But after leading-on Trump’s base, the Justice Department and the FBI said that the Epstein files did not contain the kind of evidence that would justify investigating other people.
The video recordings of child sexual abuse material found by investigators were not videos that Epstein recorded of crimes by himself or his friends, but material he downloaded, Bondi said.
Still, with the backlash from the right continuing to fester, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at those who continue to question him.
He rebuked his own supporters as “weaklings” for continuing to talk about Epstein’s case and accused them of falling for a “scam” perpetrated by Democrats.
“I don’t understand why they would be so interested,” Trump told reporters.
“He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is, I really don’t.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Luke Broadwater
Photographs by: Tierney L. Cross
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