A former police chief in Florida told the FBI that Donald Trump called him in 2006 and said “everyone” knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s behaviour, according to a newly released FBI document.
The document summarises a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief, who said Trump contacted him after local authorities began investigating Epstein. According to the record, Trump said: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
Although the officer’s name is blacked out in the document, it identifies the interviewee as the Palm Beach police chief at the time of the Epstein investigation. That position was held by Michael Reiter, who later told the Miami Herald that he received the call from Trump.
President Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said he was unaware of his crimes. The reported call could raise fresh questions about what Trump knew at the time.
In 2019, after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, Trump told reporters he had no suspicions about him. “No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years,” he said.
According to the FBI interview summary, Reiter said Trump told him in July 2006 that he had expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club and that “people in New York knew he was disgusting.”
Reiter also claimed Trump described Ghislaine Maxwell as Epstein’s “operative” and said “she is evil and to focus on her.” Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for helping recruit underage girls for Epstein.
The former police chief further told the FBI that Trump said he had been around Epstein when he was with teenage girls but “got the hell out of there.” The document also states that Trump was among the “very first people to call” Florida police after learning about the investigation.
In 2006, Palm Beach police were investigating Epstein over allegations of sexually exploiting underage girls. The case was later transferred to federal prosecutors. In 2008, Epstein reached a controversial plea deal that included a non-prosecution agreement shielding him from more serious federal charges.
In a statement to the BBC, a US Justice Department official said authorities were not aware of any evidence confirming that the president contacted law enforcement two decades ago.
Epstein associate Maxwell refuses to testify, seeks clemency
At a White House briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the reported call “may or may not have happened in 2006” and that she did not know the answer.
“What President Trump has always said is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” she said. “And that remains true in this call. If it did happen, it corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”
The BBC has contacted Reiter for comment.
Trump and Epstein were seen together socially and photographed in the 1990s. The president and the White House have maintained that he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes and ended contact with him around 2004, years before Epstein’s first arrest.
Trump has said their relationship ended after he learned Epstein was trying to recruit employees from Mar-a-Lago. “When I heard about it, I told him, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said in July. “He was fine and then not too long after that he did it again and I said ‘outta here’.”
The renewed attention comes after Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee on Monday. During the closed-door session, she declined to answer questions and invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to committee chairman James Comer.
Maxwell’s lawyer said she would be willing to speak “fully and honestly” if granted clemency by President Trump. Trump has said he has not considered pardoning her.
#With inputs from BBC