Trump allegedly called the police chief in 2006 to talk about Epstein’s behavior, FBI document shows

Trump and Epstein were friends, but the American president claims to have cut ties with billionaires before the first accusations of sexual exploitation of minors Getty Images A former Florida police chief claimed to have received a call from Donald Trump in 2006 in which he said that “everyone” knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior, according to an FBI document released in the latest batch of files on the case. The document is a written record of a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief, who claims Trump called him after the department launched an investigation into Epstein. “Thank God they are arresting him, everyone knew he was doing this,” said the current president of the United States, according to the record. The officer’s name has been withheld, but the document identifies him as the Palm Beach police chief at the time of the investigation. It was Michael Reiter, who confirmed to the Miami Herald that he had received Trump’s call. See the videos that are trending on g1 At a press conference this Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was asked about the alleged call and replied that it “may or may not have occurred in 2006. I don’t know the answer.” “What President Trump has always said is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because he was a troublesome guy,” he said. “If that call happened, it just corroborates exactly what President Trump has said all along.” The BBC has also contacted Reiter for comment. In a statement to the BBC, a Justice Department representative said: “We are not aware of any evidence to confirm that the president contacted authorities 20 years ago.” The alleged call, however, should raise new questions about what Trump knew and when. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell United States Department of Justice The American president has denied any involvement with Epstein’s crimes and claims that he had no knowledge of the businessman’s activities. Asked by reporters in 2019 — when Epstein was arrested by federal agents for sex trafficking — whether he had “any suspicions” about the billionaire, Trump said: “No, I had an idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many years.” According to the FBI’s summary of the interview, Reiter also said that Trump told him, during a phone call in July 2006, that he had kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club. “People in New York knew he was disgusting,” the American president was quoted as saying. Reiter also claimed that Trump mentioned Ghislaine Maxwell as Epstein’s “agent,” that she was evil and that the police chief should focus on her. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of grooming underage girls for Epstein. The former police officer also reiterated to the FBI that Trump said he had been around Epstein when he was with teenagers and that he “got out of there as quickly as possible.” According to the document, Trump was one of the “first people to call” Florida police when he learned they were investigating Epstein. In 2006, Palm Beach police were investigating Jeffrey Epstein over allegations of sexual exploitation of underage girls. The case ended up being referred to federal prosecutors, who, in 2008, reached a controversial deal with Epstein, including a non-prosecution agreement, which protected him from more serious charges. A controversial friendship Trump and Epstein went out together and appears in several photos taken in the 1990s, but the president and the White House say he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes at the time. They would have cut ties around 2004 — years before the businessman’s first arrest. According to Trump, the breakup happened after he discovered that Epstein was trying to “steal” Mar-a-Lago employees to work with him. “When I found out, I told him, ‘We don’t want you to take our people.’ He accepted, but then he tried again, and I said, ‘Get out of here,'” Trump said in July. Reports about the alleged connection emerged after Ghislaine Maxwell — Epstein’s ex-girlfriend who is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting teenagers to be sexually abused by the billionaire — testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee on Monday (9/2). During the testimony, Maxwell refused to answer questions and invoked the Fifth Amendment, guaranteeing the right to remain silent, according to Committee Chairman James Comer. Maxwell’s lawyer stated that she was “prepared to speak candidly if the American president granted her clemency.” Trump denies having considered the possibility of granting a pardon to Maxwell. READ ALSO: Prank from the Silvio Santos Program appears amid files on the Jeffrey Epstein case FBI document suggests that Trump was aware of Epstein’s crimes: ‘Everyone knew’ Epstein case: pressured, UK Prime Minister says he will not resign

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