The Justice Department has until Friday to release the Epstein files, but ahead of the looming deadline, a new report digs into President Donald Trump’s relationship with the convicted sex offender he once called a “terrific guy.”
For months, Trump has attempted to remove himself from the narrative around Jeffrey Epstein after his administration backtracked on releasing the full documents he once promised to his MAGA supporters.
He and his team have offered shifting claims about their relationship and the reasons for their falling out in the mid-2000s, as the president has desperately pointed fingers elsewhere.
The New York Times interviewed more than 30 former Epstein employees who crossed paths with the pair and reviewed new documents for a report it said showed an “intense and complicated relationship” but no evidence implicating the president in Epstein’s crimes.
“The two men’s relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits,” it read.
It detailed how their relationship started in the 1980s, and they bonded as they “pursued women in a game of ego and dominance.” It stated, “Female bodies were currency.”
Epstein was “perhaps [Trump’s] most reliable wingman” as he hit up parties in New York and Florida over nearly 20 years.
Stacey Williams, a former Sports Illustrated star who dated Epstein, told The Times that she thought it was about “trophy hunting.” She has previously shared how Trump once groped her at Trump Tower in 1993 while Epstein watched. Trump denied it.
At least six women who have accused Epstein or his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell of abuse were introduced to Trump over the years, according to interviews, testimony, and records. None of them accused Trump of inappropriate behavior.
One woman told The Times that she was coerced by Epstein into attending four parties at his home, and Trump was at all of them. At two, Epstein directed her to have sex with other male guests.
Trump once came onto an Epstein employee during a flight the three were on in the early 1990s and told her that he could get anyone he wanted, according to another employee who learned about it.
Another employee said Trump would occasionally send Epstein modeling cards like a “menu.”
Trump has not been accused of abusing any minors.
Trump visited Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, and the disgraced financier went to what was at the time Trump’s Plaza Hotel and at least one of his Atlantic City casinos. They visited each other’s offices and Florida homes and often spoke by phone, according to Epstein’s employees and women who spent time at Epstein’s.
According to one Epstein assistant, the pair spoke by phone at least three times a week in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Another assistant recalled how Epstein would put Trump on speaker when the office cleared out, and Trump “seemed to enjoy regaling Mr. Epstein with tales of his sexual exploits.” She said Epstein appeared to take pleasure in how uncomfortable it made her to overhear it. On one call, they allegedly discussed in detail how much pubic hair one woman had. On another occasion, Trump reportedly shared how he had sex with another woman on a pool table.
The report detailed how Epstein discussed a range of topics with others, but with Trump, it was “about sex.”
A third employee also recounted Epstein putting Trump on speaker while they spoke about pageants, modeling shoes, or the countries where women were in vogue in fashion.
The White House blasted The Times’ story in response.
“This fake news story, which is not worth the paper it’s printed on, is just another stale regurgitation of decades-old false allegations against President Trump,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “The truth will remain the same no matter how many times The New York Times tries to change it. President Trump did nothing wrong, and he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a creep.”
A spokesperson for Trump denied to The Times over the summer that he ever went to Epstein’s office, but a former assistant recalled that Trump met him there several times in the mid-1990s.
Previously unreported daily handwritten notes from several months in late 1994, kept by a former assistant and reviewed by The Times, suggested Trump was a “regular presence” in Epstein’s life.
Multiple people interviewed recalled the two men being in attendance for numerous events in New York and Florida.
One particular party at Mar-a-Lago in late 1994, was attended by Tina Davis, who modeled for Ford and was just 14 at the time. She was accompanied by her mother, Sandra Coleman.
Coleman recalled her daughter being instructed to “dress sexy” by a Ford booker. She attended along with eight or nine other models on the bus, who Coleman said were really young.
Coleman recalled her daughter being handed champagne upon arrival and having to take it away. She also intervened by introducing herself as Davis’s mother when men approached her daughter.
Coleman recalled going to the bathroom, where she ran into Marla Maples, Trump’s new wife. In the Times article, she recalled Maples taking her hand and telling her, “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband.”
Maples denied the comment.
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