In 1997, now-President Trump flew on a plane belonging to jet-setting financier Jeffrey Epstein, joining the recently accused child sex trafficker on a trip from Palm Beach, Florida, to Newark, New Jersey, court documents unsealed Friday revealed.
Dozens of pages of flight logs were ordered released today by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit along with 2,000 pages of other court records connected to the defamation lawsuit brought by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s on-again-off-again girlfriend and longtime associate whom Giuffre has accused of helping Epstein abuse her and other women when Giuffre was underage.
The 14-page indictment against Epstein from July alleges he sexually exploited dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005 and perhaps beyond. Some of the victims were allegedly as young as 14 at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
The new flight manifests show Trump joining Epstein, Epstein’s brother Mark, Ghislaine Maxwell, and others on the flight from Palm Beach International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport on Jan. 5, 1997, supporting Mark Epstein’s previous recollection of Trump flying on Epstein’s jet.
Trump and Epstein were neighbors and friends in Palm Beach in the 1990s, though they eventually had a falling out. Trump claimed in July he was “never a fan” of Epstein, but in 2002 described Epstein as a “terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do — and many of them are on the younger side.” Trump’s Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who was the U.S. Attorney for Southern Florida involved in cutting a sweetheart deal for Epstein in 2008, resigned in the wake of Epstein’s recent arrest.
Before today, Epstein’s flight records spanning from 1999 through 2005 had been made public, but the new flight documents range from November 1995 through August 2013.
The unsealed documents also include a November 2016 deposition by Giuffre, where she addressed certain claims made by journalist Sharon Churcher about Giuffre’s interactions with Clinton and Trump.
Giuffre stated “Jeffrey told me that Donald Trump is a good friend of his” but disputed Trump flirted with her or had sex with any girls on the flight. “Oh, I didn’t physically see him have sex with any of the girls, so I can’t say who he had sex with in his whole life or not,” Giuffre said. “But I just know it wasn’t with me when I was with other girls.” She also said she never saw Trump at any of Epstein’s homes.
Giuffre also described flying on jets with Clinton but said she did not see Clinton on Epstein’s personal helicopter firsthand. Ghislaine told her “she flew Bill in the black helicopter that Jeffrey bought her,” she said.
Giuffre also said Clinton’s Secret Service detail was present with Clinton on flights but weren’t physically next to him at all times.
A statement released on July 8 by former President Bill Clinton’s press secretary, Angel Ureña, claimed that “in 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: One to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa,” but a Washington Examiner review of the flight manifest records shows that Clinton actually went on at least 27 flights on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” during at least six trips, not four.
The July statement from Clinton also claimed the former president only met with Epstein beginning in the early 2000s, but that has also been disproven following revelations that Epstein met Clinton years before when Epstein visited the White House multiple times in the early and mid-1990s and when Clinton attended a three-hour fundraising dinner in 1995 where Epstein was present.
Epstein, already a convicted sex offender, was arrested in July and his home in New York City was raided by law enforcement as well, where investigators found nude photographs of underage girls, thousands of dollars in cash, dozens of loose diamonds, and a foreign passport from the 1980s with Epstein’s picture and a false name.
The judge in the case said that Epstein poses a “significant” danger to the community and agreed with prosecutors that he is a serious flight risk. Epstein’s trial won’t begin until next summer at the earliest.
