Trump told police chief ‘everyone’ knew about Epstein, FBI document says

WASHINGTON - A newly uncovered FBI interview raised new questions about US President Donald Trump’s assertion he knew nothing about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, while Mr Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick faced a barrage of questions from lawmakers on Feb 10 about his own ties to the financier.

The Feb 10 developments underscored how the fallout from the Epstein scandal remains a major political headache for the Trump administration, weeks after the Justice Department released millions of Epstein-related files to comply with a bipartisan bill.

The files have also created crises abroad after revealing new details of Epstein’s ties to prominent people in politics, finance, business and academia.

In July 2006, as Epstein’s first sex crime charges became public, the police chief in Palm Beach, Florida, received a call from Mr Trump, according to the summary of a 2019 FBI interview with the police chief that was among the files.

The police chief Michael Reiter cited Mr Trump as having told him: “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”

Mr Trump told Mr Reiter that people in New York knew about Epstein and advised him that Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell was “evil”, according to the document. Mr Trump also said he had once been around Epstein when teenagers were present and that he “got the hell out of there”.

Mr Reiter, who retired in 2009, confirmed the details of the FBI interview to the Miami Herald, which first reported its existence.

Asked about the reported conversation, the Justice Department said: “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”

Mr Trump was friends with Epstein for years, but they had a falling out before Epstein’s first arrest, Mr Trump has said. The President has repeatedly said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Feb 10 that Mr Trump has been “honest and transparent” about ending his association with Epstein.

“It was a phone call that may or may not have happened in 2006,” she said. “I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Lutnick grilled at Senate hearing

Separately on Feb 10, Mr Lutnick sought to distance himself from Epstein while testifying at a Senate hearing, alleging he “barely had anything to do with” him.

The Justice Department files included emails that showed Mr Lutnick appears to have visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island for lunch in 2012, seven years after he claimed to have cut off all ties. The revelations have prompted calls from both Republicans and Democrats for him to resign.

Mr Lutnick told senators that the two men had met only three times over 14 years and that the lunch, which included his family, occurred simply because he was on a boat near the island.

“I know and my wife knows that I have done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard,” Mr Lutnick said at the hearing.

But the emails contradicted Mr Lutnick’s previous statements that he vowed in 2005 never to see Epstein again, after Epstein, his neighbour at the time, showed Mr Lutnick a massage table at his townhouse and made a sexually suggestive comment.

Republican Representative Tom Massie told CNN on Feb 8 that Mr Lutnick should “make life easier on the President, frankly, and just resign”.

Ms Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Feb 10 that Trump “fully supports” Mr Lutnick. Congressional Democrats also introduced legislation on Feb 10 intended to make it easier for adult victims of sex trafficking to sue their abusers, even many years later.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez announced the bill alongside Epstein victims and Ms Virginia Giuffre’s family. The proposal – Virginia’s Law – is named after Ms Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, who died by suicide in 2025.

Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. While officially ruled a suicide, his death has prompted years of conspiracy theories, including some that Mr Trump himself amplified to his supporters during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in helping Epstein abuse teenage girls, sat for a deposition before the US House’s oversight committee on Feb 9 but refused to answer any questions. REUTERS