Ex-Florida police chief claims Trump told him ‘everyone’ knew what Epstein was doing in 2006 | Jeffrey Epstein
Donald Trump criticized Jeffrey Epstein nearly two decades ago, claiming “everyone knew he did this,” a former Palm Beach police chief said.
Michael Reiter’s account of his conversation with Trump, included in the 3 million Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, strikingly contradicts the US president’s public statements. “I had no idea,” Trump said after Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, when asked if he knew about his former friend’s abuse of young girls.
Reiter, who retired in 2009, approved He told the Miami Herald on Monday that he was the person whose name was removed from that document. The former investigator described this conversation during an FBI interview in October 2019.
Reiter said this conversation took place in July 2006; Around this time, allegations against Epstein were mounting. He told the FBI that Trump phoned him and told him: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone knows he’s doing this.”
Local police were interviewing several underage Epstein victims in 2005 and 2006. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida investigated these allegations.
But the case against Epstein ended in a shocking 2008 love deal that allowed him to escape federal investigation if he pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges.
Following the arrest of Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in July 2020, Trump he asked Whether to expect the fallen English socialites to “turn into strong men”.
“I don’t know. I don’t actually follow that too much. I just wish him good luck,” Trump said.
“I’ve run into him many times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I think they lived in Palm Beach, too,” he said. “But whatever happens, I wish him good luck.”
These comments also contradict Reiter’s account. He told FBI agents that Trump described Maxwell as Epstein’s “agent” and said “she’s a bad person and the focus should be on her,” according to the FBI report.
Reiter claimed Trump told him: “There was a time when young people were there with Epstein and Trump just ‘fucked off,’” according to the interview summary.
Trump claimed he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because the late financier, who died in prison while awaiting trial, “stole” employees, including Virginia Giuffre, one of the most vocal Epstein survivors. Giuffre said Epstein abused her and pimped her out to high-profile men, including the former Prince Andrew. The fallen royal, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, has denied wrongdoing.
Trump’s relationship has proven for months to be a political landmine for the president. On the campaign trail, he promised to release the Epstein files as a clarion call to conspiratorial right-wing supporters.
The president later blathered on about the remark, drawing the ire of supporters and sparking even more outrage when documents emerged showing he and Epstein had an intimate relationship before their split. Although Trump ultimately signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the Justice Department to release all investigative documents, he maintained that the matter was a hoax.
The White House deferred a request for comment from Trump’s justice department. The Guardian has contacted the Department of Justice and the FBI for comment.
