President Donald Trump’s appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi is under intense pressure, from all sides of the political spectrum, to release government files on Jeffrey Epstein, as she had previously promised to do. But Bondi continues to stall as the delays mount. What exactly is going on?
The relationship between President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, the mega-financier and child sex abuser convicted of sex trafficking, has been the subject of intense scrutiny for years. While Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities, their social ties, Trump’s numerous inclusions in Epstein’s “little black book,” records of Trump’s presence on Epstein’s private jet, and the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death have fueled ongoing questions about the nature of their association and the broader implications of their connection.
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein moved in overlapping social circles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a period when Epstein was cultivating relationships with wealthy and influential figures. In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy” that he’s known for 15 years (at the time) and added, “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” This remark, made years before Epstein’s crimes were widely known, has since been cited as evidence of their familiarity.
Epstein’s “little black book,” published by Gawker in 2015, contained at least 14 entries for Trump, including phone numbers for his office, Mar-a-Lago estate, and security personnel. While the address book does not prove any direct involvement in Epstein’s illegal activities, it highlights the extent of their social connections.
Flight logs from Epstein’s private jet, often referred to as the “Lolita Express,” have also drawn attention. Records show that Trump was listed as a passenger on at least one flight in 1997, traveling from Palm Beach, Florida, to New York City. Trump’s spokesperson has confirmed the information was accurate. Donald Trump even used a plane previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein for his recent winning 2024 presidential campaign, as confirmed by The Guardian.
Epstein’s legal troubles began in earnest in 2005, when he was investigated for sexually abusing underage girls. He ultimately pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor and served 13 months in a Florida jail under a controversial plea deal. Throughout this period, Trump maintained that he had fallen out with Epstein years earlier. In a 2019 statement, Trump said, “Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him. I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years.”
Notably, Trump was not implicated in any of the criminal proceedings against Epstein. However, court documents from Epstein’s 2019 federal sex trafficking case included allegations from a woman who claimed she was recruited to perform massages at Mar-a-Lago when she was underage. Trump’s legal team has vehemently denied these allegations, calling them “categorically false.” But that’s not all.
An anonymous woman represented by Lisa Bloom, a lawyer for multiple other Epstein victims, accused Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of raping her at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home when she was 13-years-old. “I understood that both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein knew that I was 13 years old,” she wrote after naming the two as defendants. But days before the 2016 election, Bloom reported that her client was forced to call the proceedings off due to threats to her life. At an abruptly cancelled November press conference on the eve of the 2016 election, Bloom told reporters that her client had “received numerous threats” adding that “she has decided she is too afraid to show her face ...She is in terrible fear.” The story was quickly expunged from the media cycle upon Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory.
Epstein’s crimes, which involved the sexual exploitation of dozens of underage girls, have cast a long shadow over his associates. Other Trump allies have been tied to Epstein as well, including top Trump investor Peter Thiel and Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz.
In 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges under the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman. On August 10, 2019, while in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, Epstein was found dead in his cell in what was officially ruled a suicide by hanging.
However, the bespoke circumstances surrounding his death raised significant concerns.
Epstein’s death occurred under the watch of the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, leading some to question whether adequate precautions were taken to ensure his safety. Epstein had previously been found injured in his cell weeks earlier, and reports indicated that he was not consistently monitored despite being on suicide watch. The lack of surveillance footage from the night of his death further fueled skepticism.
Public concerns were amplified by Epstein’s extensive network of powerful associates, many of whom had a vested interest in silencing him. Conspiracy theories suggesting foul play proliferated, with some speculating that Epstein was murdered to prevent him from implicating others. While no evidence has emerged to substantiate these claims, the doubts surrounding his death remain a lingering issue. And now: the legacy of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and Epstein’s connections to Trump are, once again, in the hands of a Department of Justice run by Donald Trump and his loyalists like Attorney General Pam Bondi. Whatever comes out in the new so-called Epstein list— just don’t forget about what we already know about Trump’s ties to Epstein.
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