Trump and Epstein

Washington Post -  Attorney General Pam Bondi said she will ask a federal court Friday to unseal more grand jury testimony in the sex-trafficking case against former financier Jeffrey Epstein, as she seeks to quell a growing political outcry over the Justice Department’s unfulfilled promise to release more details of the investigation.

But those sealed transcripts, which a judge must first agree to make public in a process that could take weeks, would constitute only a fraction of the evidence and investigative material that the FBI amassed during its years-long investigation. The transcripts are unlikely to fully satisfy Trump’s right-wing base, which continues to call for full transparency surrounding the investigation.

The full extent of what remains under wraps is unclear. Thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation have already been released through lawsuits, court filings, public records requests and the Justice Department’s prosecution of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Much of what remains, the Justice Department and FBI said in a joint memo last week, has been sealed by courts “to protect victims” and does “not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.”

A Timeline of What We Know About Trump and Epstein 

Mediaite -  Jack O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, told CNN on Wednesday that he once reprimanded President Donald Trump in the 80s for bringing a 19-year-old into the casino with Jeffrey Epstein in the early hours of the morning.

“He frequently came down to Atlantic City, the two of them, to attend special events,” O’Donnell told CNN host Erin Burnett. “In my mind, it was his best friend, you know, from really the time I was there for four years.”....

O’Donnell said that while the commission decided to give Trump “a break” and not fine him for bringing a 19-year-old into the casino, they warned that the next time it would be different.

“They made me call him and I had to, believe it or not, read him the Riot Act about this action because they gave him a break,” said O’Donnell. “I had to call him and say, ‘Look, they’ve given you a break this time, but if this happens again, the fine is gonna be substantial and it’s gonna be on your head. And oh, by the way, it’s not gonna look good, you and this guy Epstein, coming down here with these young women.”

The Guardian - It was a friendship that spanned three different decades. To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein was a “terrific guy”. Epstein believed himself to be Trump’s “closest friend”, and praised the future president as “charming”.

The relationship would eventually break down, the men falling out over a bidding war on a property in Florida. And after Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan” and wondering, in recent days, why his supporters would “waste time and energy” on demanding that FBI and Department of Justice files on Epstein be released.

But photos, videos and anecdotes paint a picture of a close friendship, of two middle-aged men who repeatedly partied together both alone and with their partners, including with Melania Knauss, who would go on to become Trump’s third wife.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “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.”

Trump’s insight into Epstein’s predilections would be proved true in macabre fashion, when Epstein was found guilty in 2008 of sexually abusing girls aged between 14 and 17 years old. When Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors, in 2019, Trump attempted to play down their relationship, insisting: “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.” Trump said the pair had fallen out years earlier, and claimed: “I was not a fan of his.”

But during the 15 years that the men were friends, there were plenty of incidents that displayed Trump and Epstein’s closeness. More

NBC News -  President Donald Trump on Thursday denied writing a letter to Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago that reportedly included an outline of a naked woman and a "Donald" signature.

The denial came in response to a Wall Street Journal article that said Trump was among dozens of Epstein's associates enlisted by his then-confidant Ghislaine Maxwell to contribute to a collection of letters she planned to give him in a birthday album.

According to documents reviewed by the Journal, Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. The outline, according to the Journal, included details meant to depict the woman’s breast. Trump’s signature was drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.