What began as a public blowup over a federal tax and spending bill between President Donald Trump and just-departed adviser Elon Musk devolved into the billionaire tech businessman accusing Trump of being tied to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the influential financier and sex offender who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote June 5 on X. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
The Epstein files are federal files about the investigation into Epstein.
Musk did not share evidence to back up his statement, and his companies did not respond to an email from PolitiFact.
Social media posts and partisans have long tried to link the Epstein files to both Trump and former President Bill Clinton. It is well documented that Epstein knew both men, but following the release of some investigative and prosecution records there has been no documented evidence tying either one to Epstein’s crimes. Trump and Epstein attended the same parties in the 1990s and Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times, according to flight logs. But the two had a falling out.
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The Washington Post reported in 2019 that Trump said their falling out happened 15 years earlier.
We asked the White House if Trump is mentioned in the Epstein files and received no reply to that question. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt issued a statement: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.”
The One Big Beautiful Bill is the tax and spending bill that passed the House and is now in the Senate’s hands. Musk called the Trump-backed bill “a disgusting abomination” because of its contributions to the federal deficit, and Trump responded he was “very disappointed” with Musk.
Here’s what we know about the Epstein files and Trump.
A New York prosecutor points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at a 2020 news conference. (AP)
Who was Epstein?
Epstein hobnobbed with powerful people and received lenient treatment by the criminal justice system until the Miami Herald published an extensive investigation in 2018.
In 2005, Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein after reports that a 14-year-old girl was molested at his mansion. A grand jury indicted Epstein in 2006 on a single count of prostitution and he was arrested. Critics of then-State Attorney Barry Krischer accused him of going easy on Epstein.
The FBI launched an investigation and was prepared to bring an indictment, but in 2008 Epstein pleaded to one state count of soliciting prostitution and one state count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. He served about a year in jail, largely on work release.
The Miami Herald’s 2018 investigation showed how federal prosecutors and Epstein’s lawyers covered up the scope of Epstein’s crimes. The newspaper investigation revealed for “the first time that there were as many of 50 victims, a handful of whom spoke publicly about their abuse, and how they felt betrayed by prosecutors,” the Herald wrote.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal charges for recruiting dozens of underage girls to his New York City mansion and Palm Beach estate from 2002 to 2005 to engage in sex acts for money. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Aug. 10, 2019, and investigators concluded he died by suicide.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino told Fox News in May that Epstein died by suicide. “You know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was,” Patel said.
What are the Epstein files?
The Epstein files are the federal government’s investigative files pertaining to the Epstein prosecution.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released what she called the “first phase” of the declassified Epstein files in February. The materials consisted of flight logs, an evidence list and a redacted list of contacts.
Bondi said the Justice Department would release more case files after redacting victims’ names. The Justice Department did not respond to PolitiFact’s email asking when it plans to do so.
“There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn and there are hundreds of victims,” Bondi told reporters in May. “And no one victim will ever get released. It’s just the volume and that’s what they’re going through right now. The FBI is diligently going through that.”
Musk has publicly called for the release of the “Epstein client list,” another topic of Epstein-related hoaxes.
Dan Novack, a New York-based media attorney, filed a 2017 lawsuit on behalf of Radar Online and journalist James Robertson, seeking FBI records about the investigation of Epstein.
We asked Novack if he had reason to believe the remaining files contain new information about Trump. “I don’t have any view as to what is in there,” Novack said. But he said the FBI has consistently stonewalled through the first Trump administration, Biden administration and second Trump administration.
“If they were playing partisan politics then Trump would have released stuff with Bill Clinton in it and Biden would have released the parts with Trump,” he said.
A view of Epstein’s stone mansion on Little St. James Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, pictured Aug. 14, 2019. (AP)
What do we know about the relationship between Trump and Epstein?
Trump and Epstein shared the same social circles in the 1990s. Epstein attended parties at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Palm Beach club, and the two were photographed together in social settings multiple times. In a 2002 interview for New York magazineTrump called Epstein a “terrific guy.”
“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump told the magazine.
When federal agents charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors in 2019, Trump, then in his first term as president, said he was “not a fan” of Epstein.
Flight logs released as evidence in the trial of co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell show that Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane at least seven times in the 1990s between Palm Beach and New York. We did not find a record of Trump visiting Epstein’s private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands,where Epstein was accused of transporting underage girls.
Many other high-profile people, including Clinton, were also recorded as guests on Epstein’s plane.
In a September interview with podcaster Lex FridmanTrump said he never visited Epstein’s private island.
“I never went to his island, fortunately,” Trump said. “But a lot of people did.”
The Washington Post reported that at some point, Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
Musk also knew Epstein. He told Vanity Fair in 2019 that he had been at Epstein’s Manhattan home years earlier for about 30 minutes. “We did not see anything inappropriate at all, apart from weird art. He tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island. I declined,” Musk said.
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