In an e mail dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote that flight data confirmed Trump had flown on Epstein’s personal jet eight occasions throughout the Nineteen Nineties. Amongst these had been a minimum of 4 flights on which Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell was additionally aboard. Maxwell is serving a 20-year jail sentence for serving to late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage women.
In a social media put up in 2024, Trump stated he “was by no means on Epstein’s Aircraft, or at his ‘silly’ Island.” There was no allegation within the prosecutor’s e mail that Trump had dedicated any crime. The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the e-mail.
On one flight described within the newly launched data, the one three passengers had been Epstein, Trump and a 20-year-old girl whose title was redacted. “On two different flights, two of the passengers, respectively, had been girls who could be attainable witnesses in a Maxwell case,” the doc said.
Trump knew Epstein socially within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. Trump has stated their affiliation ended within the mid-2000s and that he was by no means conscious of the financier’s sexual abuse. Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring an individual below the age of 18 for prostitution. The Justice Division charged him with intercourse trafficking in 2019.
The Division of Justice posted an announcement on X saying: “A few of these paperwork comprise unfaithful and sensationalist claims made towards President Trump that had been submitted to the FBI proper earlier than the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if that they had a shred of credibility, they actually would have been weaponized towards President Trump already.
“However, out of our dedication to the regulation and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these paperwork with the legally required protections for Epstein’s victims,” it stated. The most recent launch of Epstein recordsdata contains round 30,000 pages of paperwork, with many redactions, and dozens of video clips, together with a number of purporting to be shot inside a federal detention middle. Epstein was discovered lifeless in 2019 in a New York jail. His loss of life was dominated a suicide.
In one other e mail, an unidentified individual wrote in 2021 that that they had not too long ago been trying by way of information the federal government obtained from former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s cellphone and located an “picture of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell.” The federal government redacted elements of the message indicating who despatched and obtained it.
One other file within the authorities’s launch included a grainy photograph of Trump seated subsequent to Maxwell. It matches a picture of the 2 at a New York trend present in 2000.
The disclosures included a scattering of different data that reference Trump, although they provide little indication that the federal government thought of them to be credible.
Amongst them was a picture of a card purporting to be from Epstein to Larry Nassar, a former gymnastics physician who was convicted of sexually abusing women below his care. A handwritten message within the card referenced Trump with out utilizing his title.
Reuters couldn’t decide whether or not the cardboard is genuine.
The postmark on the envelope is from Virginia, not New York the place Epstein was jailed, and the return deal with doesn’t embody Epstein’s inmate quantity, which federal prisons usually require be included on outgoing letters. In line with one other doc launched on Tuesday, the FBI requested a handwriting evaluation of the cardboard, although whether or not it was performed or its outcomes had been unclear.
The Justice Division stated in an announcement it was “trying into the validity of this alleged letter.”
The federal government additionally disclosed a number of stories of cellphone calls to an FBI tip line that reference Trump, although they didn’t establish the individuals who made the calls or give a sign of whether or not investigators adopted up on the calls or discovered them to be credible.
One caller claimed that he had pushed a limousine for Trump in 1995 and overheard him making a cellphone name within the again through which he addressed somebody as “Jeffrey” and at one level talked about abusing a woman.
The authorities Tuesday additionally launched a video that purports to indicate Epstein kneeling inside his jail cell, however a Reuters examination discovered it seems to be a computer-generated clip that first surfaced on social media in 2020, a yr after his loss of life. It was submitted to the Justice Division by an individual who stated it purported to indicate Epstein’s loss of life, in keeping with an e mail additionally launched on Tuesday.
TRANSPARENCY LAW
The Trump administration final week printed a big cache of Epstein recordsdata in an try to adjust to a brand new regulation forcing disclosure on the politically fraught subject.
Nevertheless, the releases on Friday and Saturday contained intensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the celebration forward of 2026 midterm elections.
On Monday, Trump downplayed the significance of the Epstein recordsdata. Talking to reporters, he stated the fabric was “simply used to deflect towards super success” by him and his fellow Republicans.
The brand new transparency regulation, overwhelmingly handed by Congress final month, mandated the disclosure of all Epstein recordsdata, regardless of Trump’s months-long effort to maintain them sealed.
Republican Consultant Thomas Massie, who helped spearhead the regulation requiring the recordsdata’ launch, responded late on Monday to Trump’s feedback expressing dislike for the discharge of Epstein paperwork. The Kentucky Republican wrote on X: “Trump is blaming me for a invoice he finally signed, whereas defending his banker pals, Invoice Clinton, and ‘harmless’ guests to rape island. In the meantime (Legal professional Basic Pam) Bondi is working fervently to redact, omit, and delete Epstein recordsdata she is legally required to launch below our invoice.”
