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After it became known that Jeffrey Epstein was under investigation in the 2000s, one of the first calls the Palm Beach police received was from Donald J. Trump, the local police chief at the time told the F.B.I. more than a decade later.
Mr. Trump reportedly told the chief, Michael Reiter, “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” according to a document recounting their conversation that is part of the tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department.
Mr. Trump said it was known in New York circles that Mr. Epstein was disgusting and suggested that the police also focus their investigation on Mr. Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, according to the memo. “She is evil,” Mr. Trump reportedly said.
Mr. Trump also told the police chief that he was around Mr. Epstein once when teenagers were present and that he “got the hell out of there,” according to Mr. Reiter’s account.
The former chief described his conversation with Mr. Trump to the F.B.I. in October 2019, two months after Mr. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, the memo shows. Mr. Reiter told The Miami Herald, which reported on the document earlier, that the call with Mr. Trump occurred in July 2006.
The account highlights the shifting explanations Mr. Trump has given about what he knew — and didn’t know — about Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell. He has denied knowledge of Mr. Epstein abusing underage girls, but also said last year that the financier “stole” young women who worked at his Mar-a-Lago club. The White House has said Mr. Trump barred Mr. Epstein from the club “for being a creep.”
After Ms. Maxwell was arrested, Mr. Trump did not raise any concerns about her behavior. “I just wish her well, frankly,” Mr. Trump said of Ms. Maxwell in 2020. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach.”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said she could not confirm the call had taken place but that, if it had, it would corroborate Mr. Trump’s statements that he had kicked Mr. Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago.
She said the phone call “may or may not have happened in 2006 — I don’t know the answer to that question.”
“What I’m telling you is that 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 added. “And that remains true, and this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”
In the F.B.I.’s written account of the interview with Mr. Reiter, Mr. Trump is depicted as someone eager to relay to the police his concerns about Mr. Epstein’s conduct.
But in July 2019, shortly after Mr. Epstein’s arrest, Mr. Trump was asked by reporters if he had “any suspicions” that Mr. Epstein “was molesting young women, underaged women.”
“No, I had no idea. I had no idea,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years. But I had — I didn’t have no idea.”
The White House on Tuesday referred questions about Mr. Reiter’s account to the Justice Department. The Justice Department, in a statement, said it had not corroborated the chief’s recollection of the conversation: “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”
Mr. Reiter declined to comment.
Speaker Mike Johnson last year described Mr. Trump as an “informant” against Mr. Epstein. Mr. Johnson later clarified his remarks, saying he was not sure he used the right word, but that “President Trump was never a hindrance to the Epstein investigation. He was trying to assist in that.”
Mr. Trump has said that he “didn’t know” why Mr. Epstein was recruiting employees from Mar-a-Lago, but claimed that he threw him out of the club amid a dispute over stealing spa workers.
But other documents in the Epstein files appear to undercut that account, according to Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, who reviewed unredacted portions of the documents this week.
“Epstein’s lawyers synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago, but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago, and he had never been asked to leave,” Mr. Raskin said.
“It seems to be at odds with some things that President Trump has been saying recently about how he had kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of the club,” he added.
Revelations about Mr. Trump’s connections to Mr. Epstein have been a constant source of headache for the White House as it has tried to distance the president from the notorious sex offender.
Mr. Trump was friendly for at least 15 years with Mr. Epstein, and they were repeatedly spotted together at parties. But Mr. Trump has frequently tried to downplay their relationship.
Mr. Trump has said that the men broke off contact years ago, though there have been several explanations for the falling out.
In 2002, Mr. Trump told New York magazine, “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.”
But two years after Mr. Trump called Mr. Epstein a “terrific guy,” the two men became rivals over an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion that had fallen into foreclosure.
Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution involving a minor.
After being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, he hanged himself in his jail cell that year, according to local and federal authorities. Ms. Maxwell, his longtime confidante, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Mr. Epstein for nearly a decade to aid in his abuse.
She recently invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under questioning from the House Oversight Committee.
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The former police chief’s account highlights the inconsistent statements President Trump has made over the years about his relationship with both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
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