A Wall Street Journal article published on Thursday night to Donald Trump’s relationship with the sexual aggressor.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate, asked Trump and many other people to send letters to an Epstein 50th anniversary commemorative album in 2003.
A letter signed on the behalf of Trump included the obscene sketch of a naked woman and an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein. In this conversation, the two men reflected on how they shared some kind of secret knowledge about the fact that there were “more in life than having everything.”
“Happy Birthday – And may it be another wonderful secret every day,” Trump concludes in this imagined conversation.
The US President denied writing the letter and on Friday filed a defamation action against the editor of Wall Street Journal and the journalists who wrote the report.
“This was not me. It’s a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” Trump said in an interview. “I never drew this in life. I don’t do women’s drawings.”
Trump added in one: “These are not my words, it is not the way I speak. Besides, I do not draw.”
It is no secret that Trump and Epstein were close to the period before Epstein being accused of requesting prostitution in the mid -2000s. There are several photographs of the two together.
But the new report – together with Trump’s requests for his supporters after the promised disclosures of his government – rekindled interest in the subject.
Trump yielded slightly on disclosure, instructing the Department of Justice to seek to lift the confidentiality of. (Doj on Friday, but it is possible that it does not reveal much or not to happen soon, since the great jury’s testimonies are usually kept secret. And these testimonies represent only a small part of the relevant information.)
So what do we know so far about the relationship between Trump and Epstein? Here are some of the main issues.
1. How close were they?
There are contradictory signs. And Trump’s efforts to minimize the ties between them raised many doubts.
After Epstein was arrested and charged with minors’ sex trafficking in 2019, Trump walked away publicly.
“Well, I knew him like everyone else on Palm Beach knew him,” Trump told reporters during his first term. “I mean, people on Palm Beach knew it. We walked away for a long time. I don’t think I talk to him for 15 years. I was never a fan.”
Trump repeated twice that he was never a “fan” of Epstein.
Its version, which has not spoken to Epstein since the 2000s, is supported by several reports. The Washington Post that the two fell out when competing for the same property, which was facing the sea in Palm Beach in 2004.
This would put the departure before Epstein began to have serious legal problems; In 2006, Epstein was charged with a prostitution request and, in the same year, news arose that he was being investigated for allegedly maintaining sex with minors.
But Trump’s suggestion that his relationship with Epstein was only circumstantial, and the claim that he was “not a fan” of Epstein, including.
The relationship between them seems to retreat to the 1980s. Trump flew into private jets from Epstein between Palm Beach and New York, according to flight records. In addition, they lived on each other’s properties.
The New York Times reported that in 1992 Mar-Lago hosted a “Calendar Girls” competition in which about two dozen women were transported by plane. But, according to businessman George Houraney, who organized the event. (Trump’s White House did not comment on the story.)
In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine that Epstein was.
“It’s a lot of fun to be with him,” said Trump. “They even say they like beautiful women as much as I am, and many of them are younger. There’s no doubt about it – Jeffrey knows how to enjoy her social life.”
Sam Nunberg, Trump’s former advisor, told in 2019 that he questioned Trump about his ties with Epstein in 2014 when he ponders a presidential candidacy.
“Deep down, Donald lived with Epstein because he was rich,” said Nunberg, ensuring that Trump had long cut ties.
How close were Trump and Epstein remains uncommon. Was it just a situation of powerful men to celebrate occasionally together and to share Epstein’s private plane because that’s what the rich do? They are social contexts that are difficult to understand for most Americans.
Even though Trump really was a fan, he made other dubious statements.
In January 2024, he said on social networks: “” But flight records show that Trump flew in it.
Trump also said in 2019 that he did not know Prince André of the United Kingdom, the target of allegations linked to Epstein of the two together.
Trump lies and often deceives in his public statements. And you certainly have reason to minimize your ties with Epstein. But going too far in this sense harms your credibility and feeds suspicions about what you may hide.
2. What about Trump’s latest denial – about the history of the Wall Street Journal?
It is unclear what the Wall Street Journal article will mean from now on – although it already has critics of the Epstein file management by the Trump government in its favor.
The idea that Trump would send a letter to Epstein’s birthday album is not surprising, as in 2003 the two were apparently in good terms and dozens of other letters were requested. The idea that Trump would write something obscene is also plausible, given his past. (See: a.)
But Trump – and many of his most vocal supporters – said that does not sound to something he would write.
The far -right activist Laura Loomer – who asked to name a special prosecutor to investigate the management of Epstein files – quickly defended Trump on Thursday night: “Everyone who really knows President Trump knows that he doesn’t write letters. He writes notes with thick black markers,” he wrote at X.
But although Trump ensures that he has no drawings, sketches made by him have already emerged. One was auctioned in 2017 for more than $ 29,000. (The sketch would be 2005, two years after the letter in question.) Another was also auctioned this year.
And Trump, in a 2008 book, recalled that for charity.
Of course none of this proves that it was the US president who wrote the letter and drew. But again, Trump compromises his own credibility. Why lie about scribbling – something that is so easy to deny?
And it is possible that we will know more. Has been spoken of the possibility of.
3. Is Trump’s name in the Epstein files?
Trump’s efforts to silence rumors about Epstein have only increased suspicion in certain circles that his name may appear in the files that his government declined.
We already know that Trump’s name was in Epstein’s flight records. An Epstein personal address book, released in 2009, contained 14 telephone numbers associated with Trump, Melania Trump and people from the president’s circle ,. A search at the Epstein mansion in Palm Beach in 2005 found two written messages about Trump calls.
Thus, it is not inconceivable that the name of Trump is in the files that its supporters want to see publicized. Having your name there, of course, doesn’t mean having done something wrong. But it can create political headaches – as shown by the repercussion of the Wall Street Journal article – and Trump’s public reluctance to disclose more documents.
Elon Musk said last month that the president, adding, “This is the real reason why they were not made public.”
However, it did not present evidence and deleted the publication shortly thereafter.
Trump was asked on Tuesday if Attorney General Pam Bondi told him that her name was in the files, and did not respond directly.
“She gave us only a brief update about the credibility of the various things she saw,” said the US President.
4. What did Trump know about Epstein’s inclinations?
Trump’s statement in 2002 about Epstein’s taste for “younger” women has hovered about himself, feeding theories that he knew something about the activities of the sexual aggressor.
However, this remains speculative and not proven. Trump did not speak of minors; He referred to young “women”.
But the questions about those who knew what about Epstein’s conduct persist. Mar-a-lag, owned by Trump, was the scene of some of the abuse. And social links between Epstein and Trump often revolved around women.
According to Nunberg in 2019, Trump will have said that he banned Epstein from Mar-lag. Trump said he did it because Epstein recruited a young club maid to massage him. This occurred years before the investigation of Epstein became public.
“It’s a real pervert, I ban it,” Trump said, according to Nunberg.
Several reports, including one of journalists from Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal, connect Mar-A-lag Epstein’s expulsion to attempts to relate to a teenage daughter of a club member.
Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein, said she was recruited to the sex trafficking network while.
Houraney also told the New York Times in 2019 that he warned Trump about Epstein’s conduct before the 1992 Calendar Girls event.
“I said to him, ‘Look, Donald, I know Jeff well, I can’t have him to go after younger girls,” he said. “He said, ‘Look, I’m putting my name in this. I wouldn’t do it if there was a risk of scandal.’
Trump seems to have collaborated with those who were investigating Epstein, but we know little about what they said, and was never formally interrogated. The lawyer of some Epstein victims stated that Trump was, in 2009, “”.
The lawyer, Brad Edwards, said Trump “has never given any indication of being involved in something inappropriate.”
5. What about Trump’s strange comments about Maxwell in 2020?
While in 2019, Trump quickly distanced himself from Epstein, his comments the following year after Maxwell was accused, were different – and something bizarre.
“I wish you all the best,” Trump to journalists in July 2020.
Despite the – for wishing luck to an accused (and then convicted) of sexual trafficking of minors – Trump, weeks later, when confronted by journalist Jonathan Swan of Axios.
“Yes, I wish you all the best,” said Trump. “I wish you the best. Good luck. That proves that someone is guilty.”
Trump added, when pressed again, “I wish you the best. I don’t want anything bad for her. Not for anyone.”
Even for a president known for strange statements, it is among the most disconcerting.
