All the things We’ve Realized About Their Ties

Right here’s a short overview of their friendship and falling-out, and the way Trump’s political profession intersected with Epstein’s prosecution.

Eighties to early 2000s: Trump and Epstein are associates. They’re noticed partying collectively on a number of events, Trump flies on Epstein’s personal jets not less than seven occasions, and his title and quantity seem in Epstein’s “little black guide” (together with a number of Trump members of the family and lots of different well-known and highly effective figures).

2004: Trump and Epstein have a “falling-out,” because the president put it years later. The trigger could have been a real-estate battle, however Trump has not confirmed this.

2006: After Florida police examine a number of claims of Epstein sexually abusing underage ladies, Epstein is indicted on only a single rely of soliciting prostitution. Florida officers are accused of giving Epstein particular remedy, and the FBI launches an investigation.

2008: Epstein pleads responsible to 2 state prices after putting a plea cope with the U.S. Lawyer in Miami, Alexander Acosta, to keep away from federal prosecution (Acosta then served as Trump’s Labor secretary in his first time period). Epstein is sentenced to 18 months in jail however serves most of his sentence in a work-release program that lets him go away jail through the day.

July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex-trafficking prices in New York. Acosta resigns from the Trump administration days later amid public outcry over his resolution to not prosecute Epstein years earlier.

August 10, 2019: Epstein is discovered lifeless in his Manhattan jail cell. His dying is dominated a suicide.

2024: Hundreds of pages of court docket paperwork from an Epstein civil go well with are unsealed, reviving curiosity within the case. Trump is talked about a number of occasions, however the paperwork don’t reveal any incriminating details about him. Throughout the 2024 marketing campaign, Trump suggests he’ll declassify the federal authorities’s Epstein information if reelected.

February 2025: Lawyer Common Pam Bondi publicly teases the discharge of extra Epstein information, suggesting in a Fox Information interview that the “consumer listing” is “sitting on my desk proper now to assessment.” Days later, right-wing influencers are given binders of Epstein supplies on the White Home, which turn into beforehand launched paperwork.

July 7, 2025: In an unsigned memo, the FBI and DOJ say that following an “exhaustive assessment,” they’ve decided that there isn’t a “consumer listing,” and nothing within the Epstein information warrants additional investigation. The memo presents a beforehand launched jail surveillance video as proof that Epstein killed himself — but it surely’s lacking a minute of footage. The memo says there shall be no additional Epstein doc releases.