Jeffrey Epstein had stated in an unaired interview that he distanced himself from former President Donald Trump after realizing Trump was “a crook,” according to his brother, Mark Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein stopped hanging out with Donald Trump
Mark Epstein told Insider that he viewed a clip of the interview, conducted by Trump’s former White House advisor Steve Bannon, after his brother forwarded it to him in the spring of 2019.
At the time, Bannon was conducting filmed interviews with the now-dead pedophile financier. Bannon sent Jeffrey Epstein a Dropbox link to a clip, which he forwarded to his brother. The link is no longer active, according to Mark.
“Jeffrey showed me the link to one of these interviews,” Mark Epstein said. “And in that interview, Jeffrey said he stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook.”
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on sex-trafficking charges and died in jail several weeks later while awaiting trial. A compensation fund formed after his death concluded he sexually abused at least 136 people overall.
Epstein and Trump were reportedly acquaintances between the 1980s and 2000s. The two ran in elite Manhattan social circles, and Epstein’s home in Palm Beach was a short drive from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where he was a frequent guest. Footage obtained by NBC News in 1992 shows them partying together, talking about women, and cracking jokes.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, has testified that his associate Ghislaine Maxwell first picked her up at Mar-a-Lago when she was 16 years old before introducing her to Epstein. At Maxwell’s own criminal trial, in 2021, one accuser testified that Maxwell introduced her to Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old. Other accusers said Maxwell and Epstein often namedropped Trump.
The nature of the fallout between Epstein and Trump, however, remains hazy. The Miami Herald reported that Epstein was booted as a member from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 after he harassed the daughter of a member. Trump has publicly said little about his relationship with Epstein, although he said “I wish her well” upon the news of Maxwell’s arrest.
