Trump Epstein

On Tuesday, August 5, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for files from the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.. The committee also issued subpoenas to former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and eight former law enforcement officials. Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes; when Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 Trump declared himself “not a fan” and claimed he had not spoken to Epstein since 2004.

Reporting by the Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal suggests that the supposed falling out may have occurred not in 2004, but three years later. A Mar-a-Lago member told reporters that Trump shut Epstein out of the club after he “harassed the daughter of a member.” According to this account Trump was concerned that the prevalence of such behavior at his property would damage the Trump brand.

2002 - 2015

Epstein came under investigation in 2005 when parents of a 14-year old girl alleged he paid her for a massage. Investigations led prosecutors to assert later that the abuse may have begun in 2002. Epstein was indicted by a Palm Beach County grand jury in 2006, but the case was also referred to the FBI. The FBI investigation led to an indictment on 60 criminal counts, but then-US attorney Alex Acosta – later Secretary of Labor in the first Trump administration – proposed a deal in which the government would stop investigating Epstein if he pled guilty to two state charges, registered as a sex offender, and agreed to go to prison. Particularly relevant to the current furor over Epstein and his associates, Acosta’s deal included a nonprosecution agreement, or NPA, which granted Epstein, the four known co-conspirators in the state case, and “any potential co-conspirators” immunity from federal prosecution. Epstein pled guilty to the two state charges and was sentenced to 18 months in a minimum security prison. Epstein’s unusual deal included permission to leave the facility for 12 hours a day to work at a foundation. Publicity material for the foundation touted its support for hospitals, universities, and cultural events, but in fact the  organization lost its tax-exempt status in 2008. In July of that year – not directly related – an anonymous Epstein victim filed a lawsuit regarding victims not having been informed about the plea deal. A judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the 11th Circuit Appeals Court found that, since there had not been any federal prosecution of Epstein, there was nothing from which to apply for relief under the Crime Victim’s Rights Act (CVRA).

Epstein was released from prison in 2009 having served only 13 months. Responding to lawsuits from news outlets and victims, a judge in Florida ordered that the NPA be made public. Also that year Virginia Roberts Giuffre – as Jane Doe 102 – sued Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, accusing them of recruiting her into their sex trafficking operation while she was still a minor.  By 2010 Epstein had settled a number of civil lawsuits from his victims. In 2015 Giuffre again sued Maxwell, this time for defamation after she called Giuffre a liar for claiming to be a victim of sex trafficking. Maxwell settled the defamation lawsuit, and Epstein apparently successfully resisted testifying. The Miami Herald and reporter Julie K. Brown appealed the district court’s sealing of records in the case, resulting in some sealed documents – including motions that were undecided in the original court proceedings – being subject to further review. This ruling did not come until July 2025.

2018 - 2024

In 2018 the Miami Herald published a series of investigative reports about Epstein, and also the role of Alex Acosta in the disposition of the matter. Shortly thereafter Epstein settled a defamation case with Bradley Edwards, an attorney representing multiple women who accused Epstein of abusing them when they were minors. Had the case proceeded it might have led to Epstein victims testifying in court for the first time.

Epstein was finally arrested in 2019, charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, of minors in both cases. The charges came in the Southern District of New York, and Epstein was held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he was found dead on August 10, 2019, ruled a suicide by the New York City chief medical examiner.

Ghislaine Maxwell was indicted in July 2020 on six federal counts related to sex trafficking and conspiracy with Epstein. In December 2021 she was found guilty of five counts related to sex trafficking and grooming minors, as well as several conspiracy charges. In 2022 she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined the maximum $750,000.

Prior to his election to a second term as president, Trump had repeatedly tried to imply associations between Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors, and prominent Democrats or political opponents. After Epstein’s death, Trump made social media posts suggesting Bill Clinton was connected. Asked about the postings during an interview, Trump called for an investigation and stated that his attorney general – then Bill Barr – was investigating. “Did Bill Clinton go to the island?” Trump asked, referring to Little Saint James island, which Epstein owned along with the less developed Greater Saint James island, in the Caribbean. As the BBC noted in 2022, “Epstein reportedly welcomed a number of high-profile guests to Little St James over the years.” In one of her lawsuits Virginia Giuffre claimed that Britain’s Prince Andrew was among those who had abused her at the island. (Clinton has denied direct knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and ever visiting the island.)

Although Barr, and (as noted above) the New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide, during his re-election campaign Trump stoked doubts. Asked by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan about Maxwell, Trump responded, “Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to figure out how did it happen. Was it suicide? Was he killed?” adding “… I do wish her well. I’m not looking for anything bad for her.”

In a 2023 interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump repeated his belief in the possibility Epstein had been killed. Asked in a Fox News interview if he would release the Epstein files along with files on the JFK and Martin Luther King assassinations, Trump appeared to respond “Yeah, yeah, I would.” This was apparently edited, however, as the full answer – revealed on a radio show hosted by Fox News’s Will Cain – was much more equivocal. Answering “yes” regarding the JFK and MLK files, Trump’s response regarding the Epstein files was actually:

I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It'd be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one.

In a September 2024 interview with podcaster and AI researcher Lex Fridman, Trump was still somewhat ambivalent about releasing the Epstein files, although possibly trying to sound more definitive. “… [I]t’s just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to that island have not been made public…. It probably will be, by the way…. I’d certainly take a look at it." 

Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago. They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it.

February – April 2025

In response to a question from Fox News’ John Roberts on February 21, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive from President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”

Then on Thursday, February 27, a group of 15 right-wing social media personalities visiting the White House were given binders by Bondi labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” The binders apparently contained only or mostly previously released information. Subsequent social media posts by the attendees revealed that Bondi had delivered the documents personally, and that Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel were also in attendance. The limited nature of the released information was immediately criticized from the political right. Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who heads the House Oversight Committee Taskforce on Declassification of Federal Secrets criticized the release on X (formerly Twitter), complaining that the task force had not reviewed the information prior to its release, and demanded in all caps “GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR.”

Observers were surprised that, while not meeting expectations of various right wingers, the released material did contain the name Donald Trump. Trump’s name reportedly appears seven times in the flight log of Epstein’s plane, with Epstein’s initials indicating that he and Trump were on the same flight at least three times. As the New Republic’s Malcolm Ferguson notes, “A name in the flight log does not confirm or deny any criminal activity, but it does confirm that Trump had a real relationship with the convicted predator….”

On March 28, Bloomberg investigative journalist Jason Leopold reported that the same day the “phase 1” files were released in February, Bondi wrote a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel demanding that the New York FBI office provide thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents that she claimed they had withheld, and directing Patel to investigate and provide her a report within 14 days. As of the time of Leopold’s writing it was not clear if Patel had delivered the requested report. However, Bondi told Fox News that her office received a “truckload of documents.” According to Leopold, in mid-March FBI employees received text messages on personal devices directing them to work nonstop on the Epstein files. By Leopold’s account, hundreds of FBI employees have been working at the agency’s Central Records Complex in Winchester, VA, and another nearby location.  Leopold later updated his reporting on the FBI’s Epstein documents review. While noting that the appearance of a name in the documents “is not evidence of a crime or even a suggestion of wrongdoing….” Leopold reported that “FBI personnel identified numerous references to Trump in the documents” along with “[d]ozens of other high-profile public figures….” 

In preparation for potential public release, the documents then went to a unit of FOIA officers who applied redactions in accordance with the nine exemptions. The people familiar with the matter said that Trump’s name, along with other high-profile individuals, was blacked out because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.

Then in April on a video secretly recorded by far-right activist James O’Keefe, Bondi claimed there were “tens of thousands of videos and its all with little kids.” And on May 7 she reiterated the claim to reporters at the White House that there were “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children, and hundreds of victims.”

On Friday, April 18, the family of Virginia Giuffre reported that she had committed suicide. Giuffre had been living in Australia since before Epstein’s arrest in 2019.

June – August 2025

In a June appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience FBI Director Patel backed away from Bondi’s claims about the existence of videos. “Is there video from the island?” Rogan asked. “Not of what you want…,” Patel replied. “So this narrative might not be accurate?” Rogan followed up, referring to Bondi’s assertion. “Exactly,” Patel replied.

Then on July 7 the Justice Department and the FBI released a two-page memo declaring that they had found no evidence Epstein maintained a “client list,” or blackmailed prominent individuals. The memo does not substantiate the claim of “tens of thousands” of videos of Epstein, but instead refers to “videos and images,” of child sex abuse and other pornography in general. Of Epstein the memo only refers to “images,” not videos.

MAGA backlash was quick and intense. Alex Jones, of Sandy Hook infamy posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he was “gonna throw up,” claiming without evidence that Epstein’s activities were “a US government operation,” assisted by Israeli and British intelligence. Podcaster Mike Cernovich wrote “No one is believing the Epstein coverup.” Addressing Trump directly, Cernovich added “This will be part of your legacy.” One-time Trump ally Elon Musk posted a clown meme. The next day on her show MAGA influencer Megyn Kelly called for Bondi’s firing, declaring “Her days a numbered as a member of the Trump administration.”

On July 12 Trump posted on Truth Social that the Epstein files were “written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden  administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 ‘Intelligence’ Agents, ‘THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,’ and more….”

A few days later he was asked by a reporter on the White House lawn if Bondi had briefed him on the Epstein investigation. His response echoed the social media post:

She’s given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden infor—and we went through years of that, with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.

On July 16 Trump took to Truth Social to chastise his erstwhile supporters for their interest in the Epstein matter. Declaring it once again to be a hoax propounded by Democrats, Trump squawked:

Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!

The next day the Wall Street Journal published a story about Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell putting together a present for Epstein’s 50th birthday – a collection of letters from Epstein family and friends. Among those invited to contribute: Donald Trump. Among the items examined by Justice Department in its several earlier investigations was the leather-bound volume of letters compiled by Maxwell. The journal reported reviewing a letter “bearing Trump’s name,” which it described as containing typewritten text “framed by the outline of a naked woman, “A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.” Interviewed by the Journal on July 15 prior to publication of the letter, Trump denied having written it. The day after its publication he sued the Journal and its parent company, Dow Jones, Rupert Murdoch, and two reporters for at least $10 billion, claiming defamation and “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm.

Apparently as a reaction to the WSJ story, at Trump’s request on July 18 the Justice Department filed a motion with the Southern District of New York requesting that the court “unseal the … grand jury transcripts in United States v. Epstein, subject to appropriate redactions of victim-related and other personal identifying information.”

On July 21, law professor and podcaster Ben Meiselas posted a ten(ish)-year old interview with 2 Live Crew’s Lucas Campbell (aka Uncle Luke) on SiriusXM’s Mark Thompson’s radio show in which Campell described attending a party at Trump’s house in Palm Beach, FL sometime in the 1990s. Among the odd aspects of the party, as Campell described it, there was no music, just “drugs, alcohol, and sex.” There were women – many apparently from one of the beauty pageants that Trump was associated with --  “walking around,” some of whom, at least, Campbell acknowledged later in the interview were naked. Campbell grew concerned when he “started looking at some of the girls faces, I was like, man, these girls don’t look like they’re old enough.” Between the possibly underage women, the drug use, and cameras installed in the residence, Campell apparently grew worried that he might become the subject of attempted extortion.

On July 23rd three Republicans joined Democrats on the House Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee in approving a motion to subpoena the Justice Department’s files on the Epstein case.

The following week Trump revealed an aspect of the Epstein matter that may have influenced his panicked attitude: Epstein hired eventual accuser Virginia Giuffre away from her job as an attendant at an adult spa at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. Giuffre was 17 at the time. Trump cited the incident in attempting to explain why he ended his friendship with Epstein, saying that Epstein “stole” young women working at Trump’s establishment. In a 2019 interview, Giuffre told the BBC that she met Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Giuffre was eventually hired as a “masseuse,” and reportedly was raped on numerous occasions by Epstein.

The family of Virginia Giuffre reacted to Trump’s revelation, calling it  “shocking,” and declaring “We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.”

In an interview with the Yale Review’s James Surowiecki published July 24, journalist Michael Wolff speculated why the Epstein matter and Trump’s response to recent revelations had so riled up the MAGA crowd. In Wolff’s view, MAGA collectively believed that the Epstein matter “somehow … was going to get Bill Clinton.” Conspiracy-minded MAGA members, said Wolff, believed in “pedo-elites,” along with the notion that Clinton was the “anti-Donald Trump,” or at least that “whatever one might say about Donald Trump, Bill Clinton is worse.”

One problem with that set of beliefs, in Wolff’s view, is that Clinton associated with Epstein for maybe two years, whereas “Trump and Epstein were friends for more than a decade.”  Wolff and Surowiecki speculated that having Trump’s own supporters questioning his administrations statements on the Epstein matter is “forcing him into a corner on this, causing him to respond in a way that makes him seem guilty.”

Wolff recounted interviewing Trump at Mar-a-Lago for Wolff’s book Landslide, about the 2020 election. When Wolff reviewed possible interview topics with Trump aides ahead of time, he mentioned Epstein. While all the other topics were deemed fair game, the Trump aides warned that if Wolff brought up Epstein, Trump would end the interview.

An added factor in the current environment, Wolff suggested, is that “a lot of people on the MAGA side … are looking ahead to when Trump exits … and are looking at JD Vance and asking: How do we damage Vance?” Vance flip-flopped on the Epstein matter, having previously advocated on Theo Von’s podcast that the files be released,  then going mostly silent on the subject, eventually criticizing the Wall Street Journal for its publication of the letter discussed above. In Wolff’s view Vance’s behavior around the issue undermines his credibility as a “MAGA guy.”

On July 24th and 25th Assistant District Attorney Todd Blanche met with Ghislaine Maxwell in the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee, FL. The meeting was initiated by Maxwell, according to ABC News, which also reported that she received limited immunity during the meetings. According to ABC Maxwell told Blanche that Trump “had never done anything in her presence that would have caused concern.”

The family of Virginia Giuffre condemned the Justice Department meetings with Maxwell, and urged Trump not to consider granting her clemency – something he had been asked about in late July.

Having been transferred to a minimum security prison camp in Bryan, TX – nicknamed “club Fed,” on August 5 following her meetings with Todd Blanche, Maxwell filed a motion in federal court asking  a judge not to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, contrary to the Justice Department’s request. Maxwell’s justification is that she doesn’t know what might have been said about her or Epstein during grand jury proceedings. Her attorneys also filed a brief with the Supreme Court, arguing that she should be covered by the non-prosecution agreement included in Epstein’s 2007 plea deal (see above).

Reactions Right and Left

Meanwhile, QAnon – the group of conspiracy theorists who claim the world is run by a secret organization of pedophiles (that included Jeffrey Epstein) have fractured and twisted into knots in response to Trump’s attempts to minimize popular outrage at the joint Justice Department/FBI memo that found no “client list,” and that Epstein was not murdered. One faction has decided Trump’s behavior is a “brilliant” “psy-op” to trick the cabal while ferreting out erstwhile supporters who now believe “Fake News.” But another (albeit smaller) faction wants the Epstein files released. “… [I]f the Epstein files are corrupt and tampered with by … Democrats … WHY HASN”T [TRUMP] ARRESTED A SINGLE ONE…?” one member of this group asks. Another, who goes by the handle Enoch, declares, “We are still going to talk about Epstein. If there is manufactured evidence, let us see it. If there is legit evidence, let us see it.”

A Washington Post poll in late July found that between 80% and 90% of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans including self-identified MAGA Republicans) want the Epstein files released.

Samantha Hancox-Li, an Associate Editor of the political blog Liberal Currents, wrote recently about what she sees as “connection between MAGA reactionary politics” and sexual misconduct, including with minors. Recent history finds Republicans former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert; former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Roy Moore; South Carolina state representative RJ May; former County Commissioner John Jessup; former Florida Republican congressman Mark Foley among others, accused of sexual misconduct with minors. Li’s article contains links to more examples. 

To start with, Li cites the infamous 14 Words, which begin with an assertion about “our people,” but conclude with a reference to “white children.” At gatherings of members of the pro-natalist movement, about which we’ve written elsewhere, statistics are circulated purporting to show that the declining birthrate is driven by a decreasing number of teen pregnancies. The conservative journal The Federalist, has suggested that population growth can be increased by discouraging women from pursuing higher education.

Li goes on to cite Republican efforts to block prohibitions against child marriage, and ban abortion as related to the pattern of sexual misconduct with minors. “A core plank of Republican politics is that women exist to bear children for men,” Li writes, concluding “… [R]acial anxieties and obsessions, fantasies of patriarchal domination and control, lead inexorably towards the idea that women and children exist for men's use—including sexual use.”

And then ...

In the face of what CNN called “intense media coverage,” an August 6 meeting including VP JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and others, to discuss the Epstein case (among other topics) was moved from the VP’s residence to the White House. CNN reported that the meeting would consider whether to publish a transcript of Assistant Attorney General Blanche’s interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell. It was also expected to provide an opportunity for Bondi and Patel, who had reportedly “clashed” over how to handle the Epstein matter, to “clear the air.” Per CNN, Vance and his office denied the meeting was taking place.

There are now 12 Republicans of varying political persuasions who support the bill jointly sponsored by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California demanding that the Justice Department disclose all materials from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein (with exceptions to protect victims and not release explicit material). The Wall Street Journal published profiles of the Republican backers of the bill on August 9. A vote could come in September.