What we know about Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Were President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein close buddies or sworn enemies? Depends on who you ask and how they feel about the president.

Democrats and Trump opponents insist the White House is hiding a secret client list and other evidence that would expose the president’s unholy relationship with the late disgraced financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The evidence that exists, and even Epstein’s own words, lack proof that Mr. Trump associated with the underage girls trafficked by Epstein in the years leading up to his 2019 arrest.

According to many accounts, Mr. Trump and Epstein largely ended their friendship many years earlier, in 2004, when the two had a falling out over an opulent Palm Beach mansion on the auction block that both were vying to purchase.

Mr. Trump outbid Mr. Epstein, paying $41.35 million for the property near his Mar-a-Lago club.

A few years later, in 2007, Epstein was banned from Mar-a-Lago, estate officials confirmed at the time.

The New York Post reported that Mr. Epstein would use the club’s spa to try to procure girls, including the 18-year-old daughter of a wealthy member of the club.

“Her father found out about it and went absolutely ape [expletive]. Epstein’s not allowed back,” a source told the newspaper.

Mr. Epstein denied he was banned and said he was later invited to an event at the club.

But Epstein’s lawyer, David Schoen, who provided legal advice to Epstein and was then hired as his lead criminal defense attorney nine days before he was found to have hanged himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, said Epstein didn’t have any dirt on the president.

“I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he had no information to hurt President Trump,” Mr. Schoen posted on X. “I specifically asked him!”

Some are convinced, though, that Mr. Trump is among Epstein’s “clients,” and that is why Attorney General Pam Bondi has kept the alleged list hidden from the public.

Mr. Trump, court documents revealed, took at least seven trips on Epstein’s private airplane in the 1990s, often accompanied by his family. In long-ago interviews, the president acknowledged the two were once friends. He called Epstein a “terrific guy” in a magazine interview in 2002, long before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution.

Epstein hobnobbed with a long list of wealthy and influential people before and after his 2008 conviction and before his second arrest on charges of sex trafficking minors.

Among those who associated with Epstein were former President Clinton, tech billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Mick Jagger, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and many others. Many of them flew on Epstein’s jet, and some are believed to have visited Epstein’s private island, where many of the sex crimes took place.

There is no evidence that Mr. Trump ever visited the island or remained friendly with Epstein after the 2008 conviction.

Epstein told writer Michael Wolff that he was Mr. Trump’s “closest friend” for a decade and characterized Mr. Trump as a womanizer who targeted married women.

Tapes of Mr. Wolff’s interview of Epstein were released ahead of the 2024 presidential election, a move the Trump campaign characterized as election interference.

Mr. Trump’s close allies say the president “cut off” Epstein in 2007, after the incident involving the young female masseuse at Mar-a-Lago.

“Trump turned down numerous invitations to Epstein’s hedonistic private island and his Palm Beach home,” Trump ally and longtime friend Roger Stone wrote on Substack. “There is no evidence Trump did anything improper.”

Mr. Stone wrote that Mr. Trump told him he visited Epstein’s Palm Beach home one time, and the pool was full of young girls who he thought were young “kids” from the neighborhood who Epstein allowed to swim there.

“According to his personal security guard, Trump left Epstein’s home within 15 minutes of arrival, feeling uncomfortable with the strange ratio of men to much younger women,” Mr. Stone said.