"Everyone Knew": Trump-Epstein Timeline Faces New Scrutiny

An FBI interview summary released by the Justice Department adds documentary detail to longstanding questions about what U.S. President Donald Trump knew regarding Jeffrey Epstein in 2006, as fresh disclosures and congressional testimony revive scrutiny of the case’s timeline.

2006 Call Under Scrutiny

The newly released document records a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief at the time of the department’s 2006 investigation into Epstein. The officer’s name is redacted in the file, but the document identifies him as the chief during that probe - a position held by Michael Reiter, who told the Miami Herald he received the call.

According to the FBI summary, Trump telephoned in July 2006 after learning that local authorities were investigating Epstein for the alleged sexual exploitation of underage girls. The former chief said Trump told him: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”

The summary also quotes Trump as saying he had expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club and that “people in New York knew he was disgusting.”

The document further states that Trump described Ghislaine Maxwell as Epstein’s “operative,” adding “she is evil and to focus on her.”

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Contradictions And Denials

The alleged 2006 remarks sit uneasily alongside Trump’s public statements in 2019, when Epstein was arrested by federal agents on sex trafficking charges. Asked then whether he had any suspicions about Epstein, Trump replied he didn’t have any.

No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years.

U.S. President Donald Trump

In a statement to the BBC, a Justice Department official said: “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”

At a Tuesday briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the call “may or may not have happened in 2006. I don’t know the answer.”

Leavitt added: “What President Trump has always said is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep.”

She said that if the call occurred, “it corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”

Timeline Of The Investigation

Palm Beach police opened their investigation in 2006. The case was transferred to federal prosecutors and concluded in 2008 with a controversial plea deal that included a non-prosecution agreement shielding Epstein from more serious federal charges. Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The FBI summary also states that Trump told the former chief he had been around Epstein when he was with teenagers and that he “got the hell out of there.”

The officer said Trump was among the “very first people to call” when he heard about the investigation.

Though in early February, Trump said publicly: “Jeffrey Epstein was conspiring with a writer for me to lose the election.” He added: “I had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.”

Congressional Pressure Intensifies

The document’s release coincides with renewed congressional attention. On Monday, Maxwell testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee in a closed-door deposition. Chairman James Comer said she invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions.

Maxwell’s lawyer later stated she was “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.” Trump has said he has not considered granting a pardon.

Trump and Epstein were photographed together in the 1990s. The president has said their relationship ended around 2004 after a dispute over staff at Mar-a-Lago. “When I heard about it, I told him, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said in July. “He was fine and then not too long after that he did it again and I said ‘outta here’.”

The FBI interview record does not independently verify the 2006 call but places it on the record as part of a 2019 federal inquiry, adding a dated account to an already contested chronology spanning 2004, 2006, 2008, 2019, and 2021.