According to the brother of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire cut ties with Donald Trump in the years before his death.
In 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was indicted on charges of operating a sex trafficking ring involving underage girls after Virginia Roberts Giuffre alleged he abused her as a minor and alleged his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, aided in the abuse. While awaiting trial, he was discovered dead in his cell; in 2021, Maxwell was found guilty and given a 20-year prison sentence.
Trump and Epstein had a reported friendship, with the former president telling New York Magazine in 2002 that he'd known Epstein for 15 years. He also flew on his jet a number of times, though he distanced himself following Jeffrey Epstein's arrest and said they had not spoken in years.
In the same interview, the former president described Jeffrey Epstein as a "terrific guy" but according to Mark Epstein, his late brother thought Trump was a "crook."
Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Trump for comment via email Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Piers Morgan interviewed Mark Epstein via phone call for his show Piers Morgan Uncensored. During the conversation, they discussed what Jeffrey Epstein allegedly thought of Trump.
"Jeffrey told me during the 2016 election—we were just discussing the election, just two brothers talking about current things—he what he said was that if he said what he knew about both candidates, they'd have to cancel the election," Mark Epstein said.
"So he's talking about Donald Trump and he was talking about Hillary [Clinton], that Bill [Clinton] wasn't running at that point in time and Jeffrey used to sometimes tell me things about people he was with or whatever, I never heard Jeffrey say anything bad about Bill Clinton.
"Jeffrey always liked Bill Clinton. He admired Bill Clinton. So he didn't say he had information on Bill Clinton. He mentioned the candidates, so I want to keep the record straight. I like to keep facts out there. Not speculation."
Newsweek reached out to a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton for comment via email Wednesday.
Morgan went on to ask Mark Epstein what information he thinks his brother might have had on Trump that could have disqualified him from the election.
"I don't know any specific information, but I've also heard Jeffrey say that he stopped hanging out with Donald Trump when he realized Trump was a crook," he said.
"That's on tape. I heard a videotape interview with Jeff and he said that he stopped hanging out with Donald Trump when he realized Trump was a crook."
A January 2021 Vanity Fair article purporting to detail the "epic bromance" between Trump and Epstein claimed that the men fell out in 2005 over a real estate dispute.
Trump's name was included in a new court document relating to Jeffrey Epstein that was released Monday. It contains emails that were sent by Sarah Ransome, who has accused Epstein of sexual assault, to columnist Maureen Callahan, regarding incidents that involved Epstein and others, including Trump.
"[A]nother friend... was one of the many girls that had sexual relations with Donald Trump... She confided in me about her casual 'friendship' with Donald. Mr. Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her 'pert nipples,'" the document said. "I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffrey's NY mansion on regular occasions as I once met Jen for coffee, just before she was going to meet Trump and Epstein together at his mansion."
In response to the release of the documents, Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, told Newsweek: "These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit."
Ransome had later retracted all of her claims made about Epstein and others.
Trump has not been charged with any crimes relating to Epstein. After Epstein died in 2019, the New York City Medical Examiner's Office ruled he committed suicide by hanging himself with a bedsheet, but Epstein's lawyers have challenged the ruling.
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