Jeffrey Epstein's Visits to Mar-a-Lago Detailed

A trove of court documents revealing details about the friends and companions of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was made public on Wednesday, sparking renewed interest in known associates such as Donald Trump. The former president, and 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner, was included in the published list of Epstein's contacts, alongside figures such as Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, though he doesn't feature prominently and isn't accused of any criminality.

The papers were released as a result of a defamation case Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's alleged victims, is bringing against his former lover Ghislaine Maxwell. In December 2021, Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted of five charges including sex trafficking a minor and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019 in his cell at a New York correctional facility. The official autopsy report said he had died by suicide.

Trump and Epstein had a longstanding relationship, though its length and depth has been contested. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort features 13 times in the documents released on Wednesday, including an interview with Maxwell in which she denies ever being a member of the resort, but said she did visit it and is "pretty sure" she was there at some point in the year 2000. The papers also state that Giuffre worked "as a locker room attendant for the spa area" at Mar-a-Lago in the year 2000.

One of four women who claimed Maxwell groomed them for sex, beginning when she was just 14, told her trial Epstein had introduced her to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, during the 1990s. During her trial, Maxwell's defense attorney asked the woman, identified by the pseudonym Jane, if "Mr. Epstein introduced you to Donald Trump, correct?" She replied "yes," though didn't at any point accuse Trump himself of any inappropriate behavior.

Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago in 1985 for what Forbes estimated to be the sum of $10 million, before turning it into a private members club.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2019, Florida businessman George Houraney claimed that in 1992 he had organized a "calendar girl" competition at Mar-a-Lago following a request from Trump, and was surprised that the future president and Epstein were the only guests who had been invited.

He commented: "I arranged to have some contestants fly in. At the very first party, I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.

"I said, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You're telling me it's you and Epstein?'"

During the same year, Trump lavished praise on Epstein during an interview with New York Magazine, commenting: "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.

"He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

Whether Epstein was ever a member of Mar-a-Lago himself is contested. The authors of 2021 book The Grifter's Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency, which was written by a team of journalists, said they were shown a more than one decade old Mar-a-Lago members registry proving Epstein had been a full member of the club. The book goes on to claim Epstein had his membership revoked after targeting the teenage daughter of another club member, shortly before he was imprisoned for 13 months after being convicted in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution.

In an article for The Miami Herald, where she works as an investigative reporter, co-author Sarah Blaskey said she was told Trump "kicked Epstein out after Epstein harassed the daughter of a member."

She continued: "The way this person described it, such an act could irreparably harm the Trump brand, leaving Donald no choice but to remove Epstein."

However in 2019, a Trump Organization official denied Epstein was ever a member of Mar-a-Lago according to CNBC News.

Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump representatives and the Trump Organization for comment by email.

In July 2019, then President Trump told reporters he hadn't spoken to Epstein for 15 years following his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. Referring to the disgraced financier, he said: "I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you."

During Maxwell's 2021 trial it was revealed Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet, nicknamed the "Lolita Express," seven times between 1993 and 1997, in one case alongside his then infant son Eric Trump.