White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has struggled to explain whether Donald Trump knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation after newly unearthed files revealed discrepancies in his story.
The president has long maintained that he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes.
However, the latest tranche of files contained a document suggesting that he called Palm Beach’s police chief in July 2006—just as Epstein’s first criminal sex charge became public—to inform him that Epstein’s activities were well known.
According to the document, Trump also referred to Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as the sex offender’s “operative,” telling Reiter that “she is evil and to focus on her.”
However, asked on Tuesday whether the phone call actually took place, and if she could explain the discrepancy given Trump’s past comments, Leavitt baffled reporters by describing the call as something that “may or may not have happened in 2006.”
“What the president has always remained consistent in is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because frankly Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” she said.
“And unlike many other people who are named in these files, the president cut off his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and was honest and transparent about that for years and years.”
Trump has previously insisted that he cut ties with Epstein around the mid-2000s, some time after he discovered the late financier was “stealing” his staff at Mar-a-Lago.
Among them was the late Virginia Giuffre, the sex trafficking victim who accused Prince Andrew of assaulting her.
Asked about this last year, Trump insisted he did not know why Epstein “stole” Giuffre, telling reporters: “I don’t know, really, why. But I said if he’s taking anybody from Mar-a-Lago or whatever he’s doing, I didn’t like it. We threw him out, we don’t want him at the place. I didn’t like it.”
However, the latest tranche of documents have also undercut Trump’s story about this too.
One file that the Department of Justice tried to redact, for example, was an email Epstein forwarded to Maxwell, involving a conversation between Epstein’s lawyers and lawyers for Trump.
According to Democrat Jamie Raskin, who was given permission to view the unredacted version of the file, Epstein’s lawyers “quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago—but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago and he had never been asked to leave.”
According to Raskin, Trump also appears in the unredacted version of the files “more than a million times.”
The president has never been accused of any wrongdoing relating to Epstein, and has repeatedly described the issue as a “Democratic hoax.”
Nor is he the only person in MAGA world to appear in the files.
The documents also show how Elon Musk had tried to visit Epstein’s notorious island long after he was known to be a convicted pedophile, with Musk asking which night would have the “wildest party” and talking about wanting to “let loose.”
MAGA kingpin Steve Bannon was also in the files, having numerous exchanges with Epstein—including a bizarre text in which Bannon suggested he wanted to “take out” Pope Francis.
And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has also been exposed for brazenly lying about his ties to the disgraced financier, who was once his neighbor.
Despite previous claiming that he cut ties with Epstein in 2005, Lutnick was forced to admit under oath on Tuesday that he visited Epstein’s private island in 2012—the same island where Epstein’s child sex trafficking operation took place.
But Lutnick, who is now facing pressure to resign, insisted it was just an innocent visit.
“I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” he told a Senate hearing. “My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies.”
Asked about the Commerce Secretary’s actions on Tuesday, Leavitt replied: “Secretary Lutnick remains a very important member of President Trump’s team and the president fully supports the secretary.”
