Donald Trump’s previous ties with Jeffrey Epstein are beneath scrutiny after the US president slammed a Wall Avenue Journal report that he despatched a lewd letter to the notorious intercourse offender as “faux information.”
AFP appears to be like on the pair’s relationship because the Trump administration additionally faces calls for to launch all authorities recordsdata on Epstein’s alleged crimes and his demise.
– Events and personal jets –
Trump, then a property mogul and self-styled playboy, seems to have recognized Epstein, a rich cash supervisor, because the Nineties.
They partied collectively in 1992 with NFL cheerleaders at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, in line with footage from NBC Information, which reveals the pair speaking and laughing.
The identical yr, Epstein was Trump’s solely visitor at a “calendar lady” competitors he hosted involving greater than two dozen younger girls, The New York Instances reported.
In a show of their shut ties, Trump flew on Epstein’s non-public jet not less than seven occasions in the course of the Nineties, in line with flight logs introduced in courtroom and cited by US media.
He has denied this, and in 2024 stated he was “by no means on Epstein’s aircraft.”
In 1993, in line with The New York Instances, Trump allegedly groped swimsuit mannequin Stacey Williams after Epstein launched them at Trump Tower — a declare the president has refuted.
Separate from his hyperlinks to Epstein, Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by round 20 girls.
In 2023, he was discovered liable of sexually abusing and defaming American journalist E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial.
– ‘Terrific man’ –
Virginia Giuffre, one in all Epstein’s foremost accusers who died by suicide this yr, stated she was recruited into his alleged sex-trafficking community aged 17 whereas working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership in 2000.
Giuffre claimed she was approached there by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for serving to Epstein sexually abuse ladies.
Trump appeared to be on good phrases with Epstein throughout this time, praising him as a “terrific man” in a 2002 New York Journal profile.
“He’s numerous enjoyable to be with. It’s even stated that he likes lovely girls as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful aspect,” Trump stated.
In 2003, in line with a Wall Avenue Journal report, Trump penned a letter for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday that includes a drawing of a unadorned lady, together with his signature “Donald” mimicking pubic hair.
His obvious message — Trump dismissed the letter as a “faux factor” — learn: “Comfortable Birthday — and should day by day be one other fantastic secret.”
– ‘I wasn’t a fan’ –
The pair reportedly had a rupture in 2004 as they competed to purchase a waterfront property in Florida, which Trump ultimately snagged.
The 2 males have been hardly seen collectively in public from that time. Trump would later say in 2019 that that they had a “falling out” and hadn’t spoken in 15 years.
Shortly after the property public sale, police launched a probe that noticed Epstein jailed in 2008 for 13 months for soliciting an underage prostitute.
He was arrested once more in 2019 after he was accused of trafficking ladies as younger as 14 and fascinating in sexual acts with them.
Trump, then serving his first time period as president, sought to distance himself from his outdated pal.
“I wasn’t a fan,” he instructed reporters when the costs have been revealed.
In 2019, Epstein was discovered hanging lifeless in his jail cell awaiting trial. Authorities stated he died by suicide.
Since then, Trump has latched onto and fueled conspiracy theories that world elites together with former president Invoice Clinton have been concerned in Epstein’s crimes or demise.
Those self same theories now threaten to destabilize Trump’s administration, regardless of his makes an attempt to dismiss the saga as a “hoax” created by political adversaries.
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© Agence France-Presse
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