Jeffrey Epstein once suggested calling Donald Trump to organise a trip to a casino during an unscheduled trip to Atlantic City in New Jersey, court filings claim.

The former president has distanced himself from Epstein, despite their friendship in the 1990s, and has claimed he is “not a fan” of his.

However, deposition documents detail how Johanna Sjoberg described a planned trip to New York with Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre in 2001.

Ms Sjoberg told lawyers the flight was later diverted to Atlantic City in New Jersey – prompting Epstein to suggest calling Mr Trump.

She said: “As we were flying, Jeffrey said, ‘Why don’t you go sit in the cockpit to check out the landing?’

“So we were sitting there, and the pilots told me to go back and tell him that we can’t land in New York and that we were going to have to land in Atlantic City.”

Ms Sjoberg added: “Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to’ -- I don’t recall the name of the casino, but -- ‘we’ll go to the casino’.”

Mr Trump and Epstein moved in the same social circles in the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2002, Mr Trump told New York Magazine: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.”

He added: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

At Maxwell’s trial in 2021, one of Epstein’s anonymous accusers said they were introduced by him to Mr Trump when they were 14 years old.

A photo taken in 2000, the year before Ms Sjoberg’s trip to Atlantic City, shows Mr Trump, his then-girlfriend Melania, Epstein and Maxwell at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

But the former president later said he only “knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him”, adding that he “threw him out” of Mar-a-Lago and that the pair had a “falling out”.

Following Epstein’s arrest in 2019, then-president Trump said he was “not a fan” of the financier.

It is thought the pair fell out over their rival bids for a house in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2004 – the year before Epstein’s first arrest on prostitution charges.

Joseph Luzinski, the trustee who was selling the house after its owner declared bankruptcy, said both had lobbied him to agree to their bids and claimed the other did not have the money to buy it.

Asked about the reason for their dispute, after Epstein’s arrest, Mr Trump said: “The reason doesn’t make any difference, frankly.”