ISTANBUL
The US Justice Department on Monday released thousands of records related to the sex trafficking investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that allegedly included wide-ranging references to US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported.
The documents, which came three days after the first release of Epstein files, were available for several hours, but were taken down Monday evening, following a similar pattern from last Friday’s release of data.
Monday’s files included notes from an assistant US attorney in New York about the number of flights Trump took on Epstein’s plane, years before his first presidency in 2017, and several FBI tips about his involvement with Epstein and parties at their properties in the early 2000s.
Under a law signed by US President Trump last month, the Justice Department file on Epstein was due to be released in full last Friday. Lawmakers and advocates for Epstein’s victims have criticized the piecemeal release that was offered instead and threatened to take legal action to force full disclosure.
Trump’s flights with Epstein
In January 2020, an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York wrote an internal email about a review of flight records as part of the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s convicted accomplice in sex trafficking.
“For your situational awareness, wanted to let you know that the flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case,” the email says.
According to the prosecutor's files, Trump was on at least eight flights, with Maxwell also present on at least four of them.
In some cases, there were passengers who could be called as possible witnesses in a case against Maxwell, the prosecutor wrote.
“We’ve just finished reviewing the full records (more than 100 pages of very small script) and didn’t want any of this to be a surprise down the road,” the prosecutor wrote.
Mar-a-Lago subpoenaed
Recently released documents show that a subpoena was sent to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s resort in Florida, in 2021 for records linked to the government’s case against Maxwell.
According to the documents, the assistant U.S. attorneys were looking for past employment records that were relevant to the case.
However, officials of the club said they did not have the employment records from 1999 to 2001 that federal agents were seeking.
“I have not been able to locate anyone who recalls [name redacted] working at Mar a Lago in 2000,” the federal prosecutor wrote in an internal email.
Correspondence between prison officials
Recently released files also included correspondence between prison officials about psychological assessments of Epstein, who in 2019was found dead of suicide in a New York jail cell.
According to documents, authorities planned to house Epstein in a cell with Cesar Sayoc, a dedicated supporter of Trump, about two weeks before his death.
“We have supporting memorandums from the responding officers who indicated they observed inmate Epstein with a makeshift noose around his neck,” one of the emails stated.
Other files
Documents also included objections by Epstein’s victims after Alex Acosta, then-US attorney in Miami, reached an agreement in 2008 not to prosecute Epstein on federal charges in return for his pleading guilty to less-serious state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Acosta later served as the US labor secretary under the first Trump administration.
The files also include a 22-page memo from the US Justice Department to UK authorities requesting an interview with then-Prince Andrew – now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – the brother of King Charles III, who was recently stripped of his royal titles due to his connection to Epstein. The memo details the findings about him and requests a voluntary interview.
Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. In 2008 he pleaded guilty in a Florida court and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution, but critics called the relatively minor conviction a “sweetheart deal.”
His victims have alleged that he operated a sprawling sex trafficking network that was used by members of the wealthy and political elite.
The Epstein case has remained a politically charged issue in the US, with lawmakers and victims’ advocates from across the spectrum demanding greater transparency about his network of associates and any individuals who may have facilitated his crimes.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. Their past social and business ties, as well as Epstein’s extensive links to political, business, and academic figures in the US and abroad, have fueled calls for the broad release of official records.
