Update: This story has been updated to include the Justice Department’s statement on a purported 2019 letter from Jeffrey Epstein to sex offender Larry Nassar. DOJ said in a social media post that the FBI has determined the letter is “FAKE.”
Donald Trump flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet at least eight times in the mid-1990s, according to an email the Justice Department released late Monday as part of its rolling disclosure of documents in its Epstein investigation.
The email from Jan. 7, 2020, appears to refer to the related investigation into Epstein’s longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell, now in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse girls.
The unidentified federal prosecutor who sent the email cites flight records that show Trump as having “traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware), including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case.
“In particular, he is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present. On one flight in 1993, he and Epstein are the only two listed passengers; on another, the only three passengers are Epstein, Trump, and then-20-year-old [redacted],” the prosecutor wrote. “On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.”
The email does not include details about the 20-year-old whose identity was redacted, including their gender.
Trump has long stated that he and Epstein had a falling-out decades ago and has since sought to distance himself from the convicted sex offender. He has claimed that the controversy over the DOJ documents was a Democratic-spun “hoax.”
The Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday morning that some of the documents it released the night before “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” against Trump that the FBI received before the 2020 election.
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” the agency said.
The latest tranche of documents also includes a handwritten letter ostensibly from Epstein to Larry Nassar, a convicted sex offender who abused hundreds of girls during his time as a Team USA gymnastics doctor. The card refers to Trump, but the envelope is marked “return to sender” and stamped with the date Aug. 13, 2019 — three days after Epstein’s jailhouse death by suicide.
The Justice Department said on Tuesday afternoon in a social media posting to X that the FBI “has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE.”
“The fake letter was received by the jail, and flagged for the FBI at the time,” the DOJ wrote. The department cited what it said was writing that didn’t resemble Epstein’s; the postmark from three days after Epstein died from a different state than the one in which he was jailed; and a return address that omitted the jail address and Epstein’s inmate number, which is required.
“This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual. Nevertheless, the DOJ will continue to release all material required by law,” the DOJ wrote.
The White House referred questions about the flight logs and the Nassar card to the Justice Department’s earlier statement.
The documents also included heavily redacted internal Justice Department emails indicating that investigators were looking into 10 potential Epstein co-conspirators. A July 7, 2019, email from someone with the FBI in New York asks for an update on “the status of the CO conspirators.”
A response later that day mentioned:
- Maxwell
- “Brunel,” likely French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, an Epstein associate who died by suicide in a Paris jail while under investigation on allegations that he trafficked minors for sex
- “Wexner” in Ohio, likely L Brands (formerly Limited Brands) founder and billionaire Les Wexner, for whom Epstein served as a financial adviser before a falling-out. A Wexner spokesperson told The New York Times this week that Wexner was not a target of the Epstein investigation or considered a co-conspirator.
That email does not specify whether Maxwell, Brunel and Wexner were among the 10 people the Justice Department was considering to be co-conspirators.
Two days later, someone from the Justice Department’s human-trafficking unit sent an email asking for “an update on the 10 co-conspirators by COB today.” A response from an unidentified person notes that six of the 10 had been served subpoenas, at locations in Florida, Connecticut, Boston and New York. The others, including one in Ohio, remained “out of pocket.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Justice Department to release further details on the alleged co-conspirators.
“The Department of Justice needs to shed more light on who was on the list, how they were involved, and why they chose not to prosecute,” Schumer said Tuesday. “Protecting possible co-conspirators is not the transparency the American people and Congress are demanding.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Become a member to join the discussion