Police Chief Said Trump Called Him About Epstein in 2006

When it became public knowledge that detectives in Palm Beach were investigating Jeffrey Epstein, one of the first people to call the police chief was Donald Trump, according to newly released Justice Department records. Then-Chief Michael Reiter told the FBI in 2019 that Trump told him in 2006, "Thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this," the New York Times reports, citing an FBI memo from recently released Epstein-related files.

• Reiter said Trump told him Epstein was widely regarded in New York as "disgusting" and urged investigators to scrutinize Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell as well, saying "she is evil and to focus on her," according to the memo.

• Trump also allegedly recounted being around Epstein once when teenagers were present and said he "got the hell out of there." The FBI interview with Reiter came two months after Epstein was found dead in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
• The newly surfaced account sits uncomfortably alongside Trump's repeated public efforts to minimize his knowledge of Epstein's conduct and his relationship with both Epstein and Maxwell, the Times reports. Asked by reporters in July 2019 whether he had suspected Epstein was abusing underage girls, Trump responded, "No, I had no idea." He has also said he expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago "for being a creep" and for allegedly recruiting club staff, and has described Epstein as having "stolen" young women who worked there.

• Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said this week that other documents in the same cache, including notes from Epstein's lawyers, quote Trump as saying Epstein was a guest at Mar-a-Lago and "had never been asked to leave." According to the 2019 interview, however, Trump told Reiter that he had thrown Epstein out of his club.
• Trump's links to Epstein have long dogged him politically, from his 2002 remark to New York magazine calling Epstein a "terrific guy" who liked "beautiful women … on the younger side," to photos and accounts placing the two men together at parties over at least 15 years.

• House Speaker Mike Johnson last year portrayed Trump as having "assisted" the original Palm Beach investigation, at one point calling him an "informant" before softening that language.
• Reiter tells the Miami Herald that the call with Trump took place in July 2006. The White House referred questions from the Times about Reiter's statements to the Justice Department. An FBI official told the Herald, "We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago." The Telegraph reports that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "This call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning."
• In the 2019 interview, Reiter told the FBI he was frustrated when state attorney Barry Krischer rebuffed efforts to arrest Epstein, the Herald reports. He said that after the case was turned over to the Miami US Attorney's office in 2007, Epstein hired private investigators who followed Palm Beach officers assigned to the case and went through their trash to try to find evidence to discredit them.