A FORMER SOCIAL COMRADE OF TRUMP, ARRESTED FOR SEX TRAFFICKING

…One of many pictures of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein

Now the president has three former associates in jail

Back in 2002, Jeffrey Epstein was known as a financial wizard with is own private island and a roster of wealthy and politically powerful friends.  Being friendly with Epstein was something to boast about, and back then, Donald Trump did boast.

Epstein frequently visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach and he posed for photos there with Trump in 1997 and beyond. 

Epstein’s voluminous personal address book, leaked by an Epstein employee in 2009, contained 14 phone numbers for Trump, his wife, Melania, and the Trump’s long caption to the Epstein / Mar-a-Lago picture was:  “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine that year for a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.” “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. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Apparently, Trump’s comment about, “Many of them are on the younger side,” meant something that the then to be future US president hopefully didn’t fully comprehend.

Now, Epstein is in jail, along with two other close Trump associates, but Epstein is charged with much different illegalities.  He is charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors who allege that for years he abused dozens of underage girls in New York and Palm Beach, Fla.  He is no longer a friend that anyone would want to claim.  As it is, it is expected that a number of former teenage girls that are now grown women will be showing up to accuse Mr. Epstein of sexually abusing them when they were under age.

And, even though Epstein was at one time a regular visitor to Mar-a-Lago, Trump admits that his relationship with Mr. Epstein went south over a decade ago.

Alan Garten, an attorney for the Trump Organization, has said Trump had “no relationship” with Epstein for years.

Outside of Trump’s own words, there is clear evidence that the two men, both members of the same high-flying societies in Manhattan and Palm Beach, they had socialized together in the past.

Today, President Trump says he still has a lot of faith in his Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, even though the arrest of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein on child sex trafficking charges is raising questions about the future of Trump’s Labor Secretary.  It was Acosta who oversaw Epstein’s previous, highly questionable guilty plea deal. 

Trump’s relationship with Epstein, whatever it was, appears to have died by around 2007. Garten said in an interview that although Epstein was never a member of Mar-a-Lago, Trump stopped him from visiting the club around that time.  This was apparently a reaction to the then criminal charges that had been filed against Epstein.

“He banned him [Epstein] from setting foot on the property,” Garten said. He said Trump’s private attorneys were not contacted during the more recent investigation of Epstein, which has resulted in a 14-page federal indictment unsealed last Monday.

As expected, the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

In the earlier sex case, Epstein pleaded guilty to Florida charges of soliciting prostitution.  This plea was to resolve allegations that he molested dozens of girls. That arrangement, overseen by the then-US Attorney, Alex Acosta, who is now Trump’s Secretary of Labor.  The whole bogus plea-bargain deal has been widely criticized as being both illegal and too lenient for the charge.  As part of the deal, Epstein had to only spend a little more than a year in jail, but it allowed his limo to pick him up every day, he could go to his work, and his chauffeur would bring him back at the end of the day to sleep in the jail.  That went on for over a year.

Epstein, now 66, has owned a home since 1990 in Palm Beach, about two miles north of Mar-a-Lago. Today he has 5 homes in four countries and owns two islands.  Even if he wasn’t formally a member of Trump’s club, he appears to have visited it for social events, not an unusual arrangement for some of Palm Beach’s elite.  This is according to Laurence Leamer, who recently wrote the history of Mar-a-Lago..

“Lots of people were let in who weren’t really members,” Leamer said. Trump made money when these non-members paid for things, and he also reaped the social benefits if they were spotted at his club.

Other evidence of Trump’s acquaintance with Epstein has surfaced in court filings: One filing said Epstein’s brother, Mark, recalled that Trump had flown on Epstein’s plane at least once.  In addition, Vice News reported that a message pad, obtained by investigators from Epstein’s home, showed Trump had left two phone messages for him back in November 2004.  The reason for Trump’s calls was not given, according to the messages reproduced online by Vice News.

Epstein’s address book, published by the website Gawker in 2015, listed Trump’s contact information alongside that of hundreds of other people, including former president Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented some of Epstein’s alleged sex abuse victims, said he sought out Trump in 2009, seeking to interview Epstein’s acquaintances.

In that interview, Edwards said Trump: “was very helpful in the information that he gave.” Edwards said he never took Trump’s deposition.

One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, was a towel girl in the Mar-a-Lago locker room when she was “recruited” at the club by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Giuffre’s attorney, David Boies.

Boies said Maxwell asked Ms. Giuffre whether she would like to earn money and learn how to give massages, which led to Epstein sexually abusing her at his homes in both Palm Beach and New York, according to Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell.  That defamation suit was settled in 2017, but the case has been sealed.

Last week, a New York Federal Appeals Court ordered part of the Giuffre case to be made public.  Both Jeffrey  Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have each denied taking part in an alleged sex trafficking ring, but the evidence against them seems very solid.

Copyright G. Ater 2019