The timeline of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump’s friendship is not adding up.
Despite Trump’s doing everything within his power to distance himself from the pedophilic financier, interviews conducted prior to Epstein’s death suggest that the pair were close long after Trump claimed to have thrown Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for being a “creep.” A new timeline compiled by CNN reveals just how long the two men were entwined.
Their friendship spanned three decades, but in a 2019 interview, Epstein described Trump as his “closest friend for 10 years.” That would have been 15 years after they had a falling out over a bidding war on a Palm Springs oceanfront mansion, and 11 years after Epstein was first convicted on child sex offenses.
Three other individuals who knew the men have also described them as best buds. They include Maria Farmer, a visual artist hired by Epstein who provided the first criminal complaint of sex abuse to law enforcement; Stacey Williams, a model who referred to Trump as Epstein’s “wing man” after the Manhattan real estate mogul allegedly groped her; and Jack O’Donnell, the former president and chief operating officer of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, who recalled scolding Trump in the late 1980s after he arrived at the gambling floor with Epstein and three underage girls.
Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement with regard to the Epstein case, and has insisted that he had “no idea” that Epstein was abusing underage girls.
The White House claimed on July 23 that Trump and Epstein’s relationship ended after Trump kicked Epstein out of his Palm Springs resort for “being a creep.” But days later, Trump offered a different version of events to a crowd of reporters aboard Air Force One, revealing that he knew Epstein “stole” girls in his employ at Mar-a-Lago, and that Virginia Giuffre—one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers—was among them.
His remarks partially corroborated Giuffre’s account of being abducted in 2000 by Epstein’s longtime associate and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, at Mar-a-Lago, where Giuffre worked at the time as a pool attendant.
The admission shocked Giuffre’s family, who have since questioned what else Trump may have remained tight-lipped about regarding his long friendship with the sex trafficker.
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