A newly uncovered FBI document has raised fresh questions about President Donald Trump’s past statements on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting Trump may have acknowledged knowledge of Epstein’s behaviour far earlier than he has publicly admitted.
The summary of a 2019 FBI interview with then-Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter indicates that Trump called the chief in July 2006, shortly after authorities in Florida began probing Epstein’s conduct involving underage girls. According to the document, Trump told Reiter: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him. Everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
The interview summary — released as part of a large Justice Department file dump under the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act — says Trump made several striking comments on the 2006 call:
- He reportedly told the police chief that “people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting.”
- Trump allegedly described Epstein’s close associate Ghislaine Maxwell as “evil” and urged authorities to focus on her role.
- The document also quotes Trump saying he had once been around Epstein when teenagers were present and that he “got the hell out of there.”
According to the account, Trump also claimed he had kicked Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club — a detail that has been subject to scrutiny and conflicting accounts.
The newly surfaced account stands in contrast to Trump’s public remarks in 2019, when Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. At that time, Trump told reporters that he had “no idea” Epstein had engaged in the criminal acts for which he was charged.
In later years, Trump and his allies have maintained that he ended his association with Epstein in the early 2000s, portraying their relationship as distant. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week that Trump’s narrative about cutting ties with Epstein remains consistent, but noted the 2006 phone call itself “may or may not have happened.”
A Justice Department official told media outlets that there is no corroborating evidence that Trump actually contacted law enforcement in 2006, and that the claim rests solely on the ex-chief’s rendition of the conversation.
The revelations come as the administration also confronts scrutiny over the ties of its own officials to Epstein. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faced intense questioning in Congress this week after emails surfaced showing he had lunch on Epstein’s private island long after claiming he had cut ties with the financier. Calls for his resignation have emerged from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Epstein, a disgraced financier, was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges and died in jail later that year. His longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted on related charges and is serving a lengthy prison sentence.
The Epstein Files, a collection of millions of documents from decades of investigations, have been released in batches over the past year following congressional pressure. They have uncovered new details not only about Epstein’s activities but also about how prominent figures responded over time.
