Were President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein close buddies or sworn enemies? It depends on whom you ask and how they feel about the president.
Democrats and Trump opponents insist the White House is hiding a secret client list and other evidence that would expose the president’s unholy relationship with the late disgraced financier and convicted pedophile.
The evidence that exists, and even Epstein’s words, lack proof that Mr. Trump associated with the underage girls trafficked by Epstein in the years leading up to his 2019 arrest.
According to many accounts, Mr. Trump and Epstein largely ended their friendship many years earlier, in 2004, when the two fell out over an opulent Palm Beach mansion on the auction block that both were vying to purchase.
Mr. Trump outbid Epstein and paid $41.35 million for the property near his Mar-a-Lago club.
In 2007, Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago, estate officials confirmed at the time.
The New York Post reported that Epstein would use the club’s spa to try to procure girls, including the 18-year-old daughter of a wealthy member of the club.
“Her father found out about it and went absolutely ape [expletive]. Epstein’s not allowed back,” a source told the newspaper.
Epstein denied that he had been banned and said he was later invited to an event at the club.
Epstein’s attorney, David Schoen, said Epstein had no dirt on the president. Mr. Schoen provided legal advice to Epstein and was hired as his lead criminal defense attorney nine days before he was found dead in a New York jail cell in August 2019.
“I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he had no information to hurt President Trump,” Mr. Schoen posted on X. “I specifically asked him!”
Some are convinced, though, that Mr. Trump was among Epstein’s “clients,” and that was why Attorney General Pam Bondi kept the alleged list hidden from the public.
Mr. Trump, court documents revealed, took at least seven trips on Epstein’s private airplane in the 1990s, often accompanied by his family. In long-ago interviews, the president acknowledged that the two were once friends. He called Epstein a “terrific guy” in a magazine interview in 2002, long before Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution.
Epstein hobnobbed with a long list of wealthy and influential people before and after his 2008 conviction and before his second arrest on charges of sex trafficking minors.
Among those who associated with Epstein were former President Bill Clinton, technology billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Mick Jagger and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Many of them flew on Epstein’s jet, and some are believed to have visited Epstein’s private island, where many of the sex crimes took place.
There is no evidence that Mr. Trump ever visited the island or remained friendly with Epstein after the 2008 conviction.
Epstein told writer Michael Wolff that he was Mr. Trump’s “closest friend” for a decade and characterized Mr. Trump as a womanizer who targeted married women.
Tapes of Mr. Wolff’s interview with Epstein were released before the 2024 presidential election. The Trump campaign characterized the move as election interference.
Mr. Trump’s close allies say the president “cut off” Epstein in 2007, after the incident involving the young female masseuse at Mar-a-Lago.
“Trump turned down numerous invitations to Epstein’s hedonistic private island and his Palm Beach home,” Trump ally and longtime friend Roger Stone wrote on Substack. “There is no evidence Trump did anything improper.”
Mr. Stone wrote that Mr. Trump told him he visited Epstein’s Palm Beach home one time and that the pool was full of girls who he thought were “kids” from the neighborhood.
“According to his personal security guard, Trump left Epstein’s home within 15 minutes of arrival, feeling uncomfortable with the strange ratio of men to much younger women,” Mr. Stone said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.