Simply how shut was Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein?
The president’s onetime friendship with Jeffrey Epstein — the well-connected financier who was indicted for intercourse trafficking underage ladies and died in jail in 2019 — has lengthy been a matter of public file.
The 2 socialized collectively incessantly in New York Metropolis and Palm Seashore from the late Nineteen Eighties to the early 2000s. In 2002, Trump praised Epstein to a reporter as a “terrific man” — and curiously added that he “likes stunning girls” on “the youthful aspect.”
A brand new Wall Avenue Journal report provides one other eyebrow-raising element. In 2003, Epstein obtained a “birthday e-book” with messages from lots of his influential pals, and in it, there’s a message from Trump.
Inside a drawing of a unadorned girl’s define, the message claims Trump and Epstein have “sure issues in frequent.” It concludes: “A pal is a superb factor. Pleased Birthday — and will day by day be one other great secret.” (Photos from the e-book itself haven’t been revealed; the Journal’s report described it.)
Trump says that the message is pretend and that he’ll sue the Journal and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, for publishing the story. The birthday e-book is at present within the possession of the Justice Division, which may assist clarify why the Trump administration has appeared so reluctant to launch additional DOJ information within the Epstein case.
A lot of the net proper has been obsessive about the Epstein scandal for years, hoping Democrats and celebrities could be implicated in his intercourse crimes. They’ve been comparatively bored with Trump’s well-documented, decade-plus relationship with Epstein.
Nonetheless, Trump and Epstein’s friendship did reportedly finish in 2004 in a bitter falling-out; they had been preventing to purchase the identical Florida oceanside mansionand it acquired ugly.
Trump and Epstein socialized incessantly for years
Trump, Belgian mannequin Ingrid Seynhaeve, and Jeffrey Epstein attend the Victoria’s Secret “Angels” celebration on April 28, 1997, in New York Metropolis. Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Photos
A gifted social climber who quickly attained huge wealth by mysterious meansEpstein turned a fixture of New York Metropolis and Palm Seashore elite circles by the Nineties.
Throughout this era, each Epstein and Trump incessantly dined and partied collectively, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida and Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan. Each incessantly hosted or attended events that includes many fashions, cheerleadersmagnificence pageant contestants, and different enticing younger girls as company. They had been typically photographed collectively at these occasions, typically with Epstein’s companion Ghislaine Maxwell as effectively.
In 1992, the New York Occasions reported that two dozen girls went to Mar-a-Lago for a “calendar woman” competitors earlier than solely two company: Trump and Epstein. Per flight logs, Trump flew on Epstein’s non-public jets seven instances between 1993 to 1997, although he by no means went to the non-public island within the US Virgin Islands that Epstein bought in 1998.
20 years later, in tape-recorded interviews with journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein claimed that he “was Donald’s closest buddy for 10 years.” Epstein mentioned that he and Trump incessantly picked up girls collectively in Atlantic Metropolis casinos, that Trump loved seducing his finest pals’ wives, and that the primary time Trump “slept with” Melania was “on my aircraft.” (When Wolff launched the tapes final yr, Trump’s staff dismissed them as “false smears.”)
From left, Trump and his girlfriend (and future spouse), former mannequin Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell pose collectively on the Mar-a-Lago membership, Palm Seashore, Florida, February 12, 2000. Davidoff Studios/Getty
Each Trump and Epstein had been accused of sexual misconduct round this time as effectively — Trump in a 1997 sexual assault lawsuitand Epstein in a 1997 police report.
At the very least as soon as, Mar-a-Lago was allegedly a recruiting website for Epstein’s ring. In 2000, 16-year-old Virginia Giuffre was working as a pool attendant at Trump’s membership when Maxwell provided her a job as Epstein’s masseuse. Giuffre alleged that, over the following two years, Epstein and Maxwell then groomed her to have intercourse with rich and influential males, together with Prince Andrew of the British royal household. Guiffre died by suicide earlier this yr.
When a journalist for New York journal profiled Epstein in 2002, Trump gave that quote that appeared to allude to Epstein’s choice for younger girls. “I’ve recognized Jeff for 15 years. Terrific man,” he mentioned. “He’s a whole lot of enjoyable to be with. It’s even mentioned that he likes stunning girls as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful aspect. Little doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Then, in 2003, got here the birthday e-book. Based on the Wall Avenue Journalit was assembled by Maxwell, and contained joking and innuendo-laden messages from lots of Epstein’s pals.
The entry with Trump’s title contained a drawing of the define of a unadorned girl, with the signature “Donald” under her waist, and an odd, typewritten message purporting to be a dialogue between Trump and Epstein. Within the dialogue, “Donald” says “We’ve got sure issues in frequent, Jeffrey,” and “Enigmas by no means age.”
The dialogue concludes with “Donald” saying: “A pal is a superb factor. Pleased Birthday — and will day by day be one other great secret.” Per the Journal, the e-book is at present within the Justice Division’s possession.
Trump claims the e-book is pretend, asserting “these aren’t my phrases,” and claiming “I don’t draw photos.” (There are many articles about Trump’s penchant for doodling, sketching and drawing, containing quite a few examples of such.)
Salacious because the birthday e-book sounds, it doesn’t truly show any misconduct on Trump’s half: The message is obscure. However clearly, it is going to feed intense hypothesis on precisely what Trump was referring to about “issues in frequent” and a “great secret.”
In court docket proceedings and grand jury questioning, Epstein victims have accused a number of highly effective and influential males of being concerned in his intercourse crimes — however these names have largely been reportedand Trump’s title was not amongst them. In 2016, an nameless plaintiff filed a lawsuit claiming Trump and Epstein had raped her, however the circumstances across the lawsuit appeared very sketchyand it was quickly dropped.
Trump and Epstein reportedly had a falling-out in 2004
But this blissful friendship didn’t final for much longer as a result of, in 2004, Trump and Epstein each badly needed to purchase the identical oceanfront Palm Seashore mansion up for public sale.
The Washington Publish chronicled the bitter falling-out, which concerned competing bids, every trashing the opposite to the trustee managing the public sale, and threats of lawsuits. (Trump received the mansion, however offered it a number of years later to a Russian billionaire.)
This seems to have been a definitive break, as there’s no proof that Trump and Epstein socialized once more after this level.
Simply two weeks after the property public sale, the Palm Seashore police obtained a tip that younger girls had been seen coming into and leaving Epstein’s residence.
The investigation into Epstein really kicked off the next yr, in 2005, when a 14-year-old woman and her dad and mom went to the Palm Seashore police, accusing Epstein of molesting her throughout a therapeutic massage. Epstein was charged in Florida in 2006, however the case was resolved in 2008 in what was later derided as a sweetheart plea deal.
After that, Epstein’s victims pressed their case in civil lawsuits. An lawyer for the victims, Brad Edwards, has mentioned that, in 2009, he sought info from numerous Epstein acquaintances. Only a few had been prepared to speak voluntarily, however Trump was — and Edwards mentioned he was “very useful within the info that he gave.”
In a court docket submitting, Edwards asserted that Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago “as a result of Epstein sexually assaulted an underage woman on the membership.” This was seemingly the data Trump offered, since Trump has informed others this as effectively. However the story has by no means been corroborated, and particulars on when this occurred stay elusive.
As soon as Trump was president, media reporting revived curiosity within the Epstein case, and he was arrested on new prices in 2019. He died in jail a month later, in what FBI investigators say was a suicide.
Maxwell, Epstein’s companion, was arrested the next yrin 2020. “I do want her effectively,” Trump mentioned then. “I’m not searching for something unhealthy for her.”
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