Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship: What we actually know

News.com.au

2 days ago

Epstein abused underage girls. He ingratiated himself with the rich and famous. But was he part of a global cult of Satan-worshipping paedophiles? Was he an agent of a blackmail ring bent on bending powerful men to their will?
The 47th President of the United States is caught in a vice of his own making.
On one side is Donald Trump's MAGA movement.
Some are fervent believers of a 'deep state' conspiracy to protect a child-sex cabal. Or of a secret Mossad plot to twist world governments to Israel's will. It depends on which influencer you listen to.
On the other is a need for evidence.
Trump is President again. And it's his last chance to produce for the MAGA followers demanding that the Democrats, the Clintons, the Bidens – and any other offending member of the 'ruling elite' – be locked up.
The pressure point is disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,' Trump declared to 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.'
But Trump has changed his tune.
'Well I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,' he explained to US media in 2019. 'I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years … I was not a fan of his. That I can tell you.'
The difference between the two interviews?
Epstein's arrest and death.
He was detained on child sex trafficking and conspiracy charges in early 2019.
A few months later, he would be found dead in jail. The official cause: suicide.
This timing was to prove pivotal.
The 'Pizzagate' scandal was still thick in the air. US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had been falsely accused of leading a paedophile ring from the basement of a Washington DC family restaurant. That led a North Carolina man to grab his AR-15 assault rifle in a futile bid to 'rescue' the non-existent victims.
And the 'QAnon' movement was growing.
Epstein's death was deemed 'murder' and 'proof' of the machinations of the 'deep state'. And Trump was a noble warrior waging a secret war against paedophile elites.
Now, the Trump-appointed chiefs of the Justice Department and FBI have confirmed that Epstein did indeed kill himself.
To some, this is a betrayal. Trump and his followers have been promising a grand exposé since the very beginning.
To others, it's the collapse of a rickety house of cards. It's the inevitable demise of a politically manipulated myth designed to win the presidency.
So, what do we actually know?
Who was Epstein? How did he die? What was his relationship with the likes of Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew – and Donald Trump?
The coming storm
'I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is,' Trump declared in frustration late last week.
But that same interest and fascination has been a central plank of his political campaigning for almost a decade.
The withholding of court documents dubbed the Epstein files has long been cited as evidence of the 'deep state'.
Now, Trump has dismissed their existence as a 'hoax'. 'And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama,' he declared last week.
This was not the anticipated outcome.
'QAnon followers perceived Trump as a messianic figure working to expose this cabal in a climactic reckoning known as 'The Storm' – a moment when mass arrests would finally bring justice,' argues University of Dayton Associate Professor of Sociology, Art Jipson.
'They claimed that this moment would eventually bring about a 'Great Awakening' … a moment of mass realisation when people would 'wake up' to the truth about the 'deep state.'
Now, that storm threatens to engulf Trump himself.
President Trump never personally endorsed the QAnon movement.
But many of his campaigners certainly did. Now, some of those hold positions of high office.
Trump did, however, often retweet Q-related posts. He also posted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin with the motto: 'The Storm is Coming'.
But his reluctance to release evidence relating to Epstein is just his latest failed revelation.
Trump promised to blow open the JFK and RFK assassinations. But the thousands of pages released earlier this year show no evidence of a 60-year-old 'deep state' cover-up.
Trump promised to reveal evidence of alien contact. Instead, his administration has been forced to explain away a spate of UFO scares as hobbyist drones, police helicopters, and scheduled airline flights.
Without the Epstein files, there's little chance of finding a Satanic cult. Or a Mossad network.
'For some QAnon believers, this failure was a turning point: If Trump – once seen as the hero in the conspiracy narrative – would not or could not reveal the truth, then the 'deep state' must be more entrenched than imagined,' Jipson concludes.
But the Epstein court evidence exists.
Unconfirmed reports suggest investigators have amassed 100,000 files containing about 300,000 pages of testimony, bank transfers, phone records and correspondence.
And given the size of Epstein's A-list social group, that could cause considerable embarrassment.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
Epstein was a social climber who rapidly became a centrepiece of the New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, social scenes in the 1990s.
'I invest in people, be it politics or science. It's what I do,' he told New York Magazine in 2002.
Epstein was born in New York. He dropped out of university to become a math and physics teacher at one of the city's private schools.
His big break came when one of his students introduced him to his father, an investment banker.
Epstein went on to work on Wall Street for four years. Within five years, he was managing more than $US1billion through J. Epstein & Co.
With success came reward.
Epstein spent big. A large Manhattan residence. A mansion in Florida. A ranch in New Mexico. These were just the start of a worldwide portfolio of properties, including private islands in the US Virgin Islands.
He didn't like appearing in public.
But when he did, it was with someone like Eva Andersson (Miss Sweden) or the daughter of billionaire publisher Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine, on his shoulder.
Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy charges when he flew back into New York from Paris on his private jet in early 2019.
He was already a convicted sex offender.
Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a 14-year-old girl. A police search of his Palm Beach property uncovered photographs of children throughout the mansion. And investigations revealed how each victim was used to recruit other vulnerable young girls.
'This was not a 'he said, she said' situation. This was 50-something 'shes' and one 'he' — and the 'shes' all basically told the same story,' former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald in 2018.
But then federal prosecutor Alex Acosta negotiated a secret plea deal in a Florida court. This saw Epstein sentenced to 13 months of 'work-release' detention instead of a 45-year jail term. A formal FBI investigation was subsequently dismissed.
When news of this deal broke following his second arrest in 2019, Acosta – then serving as White House Labour Secretary, appointed by President Trump – was forced to resign.
Epstein remained unrepentant.
'What can I say, I like young girls,' Epstein told New York magazine columnist Michael Wolff in 2007.
He insisted the girls (under the legal age of consent) had consented to sex.
'I'm not a sexual predator, I'm an 'offender,'' he told the New York Post in 2011. 'It's the difference between a murderer and a person who steals a bagel.'
Who did Epstein know?
One of Epstein's high-flying partners drew particular attention from MAGA and QAnon.
In 2002, he flew former President Bill Clinton, comedian Chris Tucker and actor Kevin Spacey to Africa.
Flight logs record Clinton flying on Epstein's planes some 26 times.
And his private Boeing 727 was dubbed 'Lolita Express'.
'Jeffrey is both a highly successful financier and a committed philanthropist with a keen sense of global markets and an in-depth knowledge of 21st Century science,' Clinton crowed to New York Magazine. 'I especially appreciated his insights and generosity during the recent trip to Africa to work on democratisation, empowering the poor, citizen service, and combating HIV/Aids.'
Then there was the Duke of York, Prince Andrew.
He had been a friend of Epstein's since the early 1990s. They'd been seen together at exotic destinations including St Tropez and Thailand.
The Prince was also photographed talking to Epstein in New York's Central Park in December 2010 – shortly after he had been released from custody.
In 2022, Prince Andrew paid millions to settle a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts. She claimed to have been ordered by Epstein to have sex with the Prince three times – in London, New York and on Epstein's private Caribbean Island.
Prince Andrew maintains the accusations are 'false and without any foundation', insisting he never had 'any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts'.
And then there's Donald Trump.
Epstein told columnist Michael Wolff in a 2011 interview that he 'was Donald's closest friend for 10 years'.
They had been dining partners at both Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and Epstein's Manhattan mansion. The pair had also hung out at Atlantic City casinos.
Trump certainly appears to have made himself readily available to the high-flying financier.
Epstein's personal address book, leaked to the media in 2009, reportedly contained 14 contact numbers for Trump, Melania, and members of his personal staff.
But Trump and Epstein fell out in 2004.
Both wanted to buy the same Florida ocean-side mansion. And it was Epstein who won the bitter bidding battle.
Two weeks after the auction, Palm Beach police reportedly received a tip-off that underage girls had been seen entering Epstein's home. But it wasn't until the following year that the parents of a 14-year-old girl stepped forward, and investigations began in earnest.
The Trump connections
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump-Epstein friendship was in full flight by 2003.
That's when Maxwell reportedly assembled a leather-bound 50th Birthday tribute book for Epstein. One of the entries was allegedly submitted by Trump.
The WSJ describes it as a sketch of a naked woman. The signature 'Donald' appears where her pubic hair would be. And the typewritten dialogue depicts a conversation between the two men:
'Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything.
'Donald: Yes, there is, but I won't tell you what it is.
'Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is …'
The tribute reportedly concludes:
'A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret'
President Trump has called the document 'fake', 'false', and 'malicious'.
'I'm gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,' he said.
But Trump and Epstein have a history.
They were seen together at beauty pageants, cheerleader parades and beauty contests. A 1992 'calendar girl' competition, involving more than 20 contestants at Mar-a-Lago, had only two guests: Trump and Epstein.
Recently released photos reveal that Epstein was invited to Trump's second wedding (to Marla Maples) in December 1993. And flight logs show Trump flew seven times on Epstein's private jets between 1993 and 1997.
Epstein boasted to Wolff that the first time Trump 'slept with' Melania was 'on my plane'.
Trump was famously caught on tape in 2005 claiming that he could grab women 'by the p***y', stating that 'when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything'.
Since becoming President in 2019, more than a dozen women have come forward with allegations ranging from walking into dressing rooms unannounced to rape.
One, calling herself 'Jane Doe' and 'Katie Johnson', alleged she was repeatedly raped in Manhattan by Epstein and Trump when she was just 13-years-old. She filed – and dropped – her lawsuit in 2016.
Trump has denied all the allegations and accused the women of being political pawns in efforts to undermine his presidency.
But Trump is also indirectly entangled with Prince Andrew's Epstein scandal.
Virginia Robers submitted in a court filing that she was just 16 and working as a pool attendant at Mar-a-Lago in 2000 when she was recruited by Maxwell to act as Epstein's masseuse. That, she said, entrapped her in his sex ring.
Roberts (Giuffre) died by suicide in April this year, aged 41.
What next?
'I keep hearing about some of the Jeffrey Epstein clients' names being released today,' Donald Trump Jr posted to the X social media site in January 2024, 'But I'd be willing to bet that something happens between now and then that prevents those names from ever coming out.'
The inference was aimed at then-President Joe Biden and the 'deep state'.
But, little more than a year later, his prophecy would come true through his own father.
'It's sitting on my desk right now to review,' Donald Trump's personally appointed Attorney-General, lobbyist and lawyer Pam Bondi, declared in February. 'That's been a directive by President Trump.'
Expectations were running high.
Now, her Justice Department says it doesn't exist.
The Justice Department and FBI released roughly 11 hours of video showing the lead-up to the discovery of Epstein's body to dispel suspicions of foul play. But it only made matters worse. Time stamps reveal part of the recording is missing, as it jumps from 11:58pm to midnight in a single frame.
'The conspiracy theories just aren't true, never have been,' FBI Director Kash Patel tweeted earlier this month.
But the Trump-appointed lawyer and MAGA campaigner was contradicting himself.
In 2023, he insisted Epstein's 'black book' was 'under direct control of the Director of the FBI'.
And he loudly complained at delays in the Epstein files' release: 'What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can't get the list? Put on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are.'
His FBI Deputy Director, former MAGA podcaster Dan Bongino, finds himself similarly wrong-footed.
'Folks, the Epstein client list is a huge deal because it speaks to an enormous problem we have in this country,' Bongino told his audience last September. 'It is that there is a connected class of insiders that feel that they can get away with anything because they can.'
Patel and Bongino now find themselves walking a fine line.
On one side is Donald Trump.
On the other are the MAGA supporters they rode into office.
'Do you think that myself, Bongino and others would participate in hiding information about Epstein's grotesque activities?' Patel told the Joe Rogan Experience podcast last month. 'Or do you think we would also participate in not prosecuting people we had evidence to prosecute people on?
'But the problem is, there's been, like, 15 years of people coming in and creating fictions about this that doesn't exist.'
Now, the 47th President has ordered his Attorney-General to quash the controversy by releasing all grand jury testimony relating to Epstein.
But this bid was overruled by a US District Judge on Thursday on the basis the demand failed to meet required legal criteria.
Meanwhile, the Congress House Committee on Oversight voted Thursday to subpoena the Department of Justice to hand over investigation documents. Several key Republican members supported the move.
And, on Friday, Epstein's convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, met with her lawyer and Trump's Deputy Attorney General Todd Blance for six-hours of talks. Congress has also voted to summon Maxwell to testify before the House.