A newly revealed FBI document included in the Justice Department’s latest release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files suggests that then-businessman Donald Trump spoke to law enforcement in 2006 about Epstein’s criminal behavior at a time when the investigation was becoming public.

According to a summary of a 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, Trump called the Palm Beach Police Department shortly after the initial investigation into Epstein’s sex crimes became public and said, “Thank goodness you’re stopping him; everyone has known he’s been doing this.” The document does not include a full transcript, but that memorable line is cited directly from the FBI summary.

 

 

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The report also says Trump told Reiter that people in his hometown of New York “knew” Epstein was “disgusting.” It quotes Trump as saying he once left an event where Epstein was in the presence of teenagers, adding that he “got the hell out of there.”

 

 

Trump then apparently directed law enforcement to focus on Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, referring to her as “evil” and an “operative” for Epstein.

These statements, if accurate, appear to conflict with public comments Trump made after Epstein’s 2019 arrest. When asked by reporters that year whether he had any suspicions about Epstein’s conduct with underage women, Trump responded, “No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years.”

The White House has not confirmed whether the 2006 call actually took place. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the alleged phone call “may or may not have happened in 2006” and that she did not know the answer to that question.

She reiterated Trump’s long-stated claim that he “kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” and said that if the call did occur, it “corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”

Reiter’s account comes from an FBI interview in October 2019, conducted two months after Epstein’s arrest. The former chief’s name was redacted in the released document, but news reports and Reiter himself have confirmed it was him.

The dispute over what Trump knew and when has become a political flashpoint. Trump and the White House have repeatedly emphasized his claim that he severed ties with Epstein in the early 2000s, long before Epstein’s crimes were widely known. But the FBI summary suggests that Trump acknowledged Epstein’s pattern of behavior at a time when prosecutors were still building a case.

Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring and is serving a 20-year sentence, was described in the same document as someone Trump urged police to focus on because “she is evil.”

A Department of Justice official told news outlets the DOJ is “not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago,” underscoring that the only source for the alleged call remains Reiter’s recollection.