Donald Trump reportedly visited Jeffrey Epstein shortly before he first announced he was running for president in 2015, and remained “very close” with the convicted child sex offender after his election, a confidential source alleged to the FBI.
The classified memo, dated Dec. 13, 2017, is part of the Justice Department’s latest Epstein files dump, comprising millions of pages of FBI reports, emails, videos, and images.
In the report, a confidential source who met in person with FBI agents on Nov. 27, 2017, alleged that Epstein was “very close to current President Donald Trump” and that, in the spring of 2015, Trump “had just been to Epstein’s property for lunch.”
Trump officially announced his candidacy for the White House on June 16, 2015.
If accurate, that would place personal contact between the two men far later than Trump has led the public to believe. After Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, Trump told reporters he had a “falling out” with Epstein and insisted: “I don’t think I’ve spoken to him in 15 years.”
Trump then claimed last year that he cut ties with Epstein in the early 2000s after the financier allegedly tried to “steal” a young spa worker from Mar-a-Lago, although membership records allegedly showed Epstein remained on the books at the club until October 2007—more than a year after he was charged with soliciting prostitution from minors and released on bail.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. In a 2002 New York magazine profile, Trump described the disgraced financier as a “terrific guy.”
The White House told the Daily Beast: “This is nothing more than a false allegation that has no basis in reality.”
The Justice Department said that the Epstein release includes raw tips from the public, which “may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents, or videos,” and stated that some of the most explosive allegations against Trump were “unfounded and false.”
The allegation formed part of a wider briefing on Epstein’s properties and power network. The source says the convicted sex offender kept a compound in New Mexico where he “lured” and filmed underage girls, as well as a private island and a Manhattan mansion.
The report portrays Epstein as bragging about his access to world leaders and oligarchs and claims he was the secret “wealth manager” for rogue world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Robert Mugabe.
The confidential source also said Epstein kept “dirt” on other powerful people.
The new document comes after the Daily Beast reported in June 2025 on Epstein’s own description of his friendship with Trump. Audio recorded by author Michael Wolff features Epstein claiming Trump was a long-time confidant, boasting that they chased women together, and alleging that Trump liked to “f—” his friends’ wives—claims Trump’s team has dismissed as lies.
The White House and Trump’s allies have spent months insisting that the Epstein files mostly recycle old material and unverified gossip.
The Beast reported on Friday how the same tranche of records contained a spreadsheet of tips alleging, among other things, that Trump raped a 13-year-old girl in New Jersey and that underage girls were trafficked at his properties—claims that were either deemed not credible by the FBI, could not be followed up on, or remain uncorroborated.
Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to state-level charges in Florida involving underage girls, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the DOJ, and the FBI for comment.
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