United States President Donald Trump flew on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's private jet "many more times than previously has been reported", according to an email from a New York prosecutor that forms part of a new batch of documents about Epstein released by the US justice department.
In an email dated 7 January 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote flight records showed Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet eight times during the 1990s.
Among those were at least four flights on which Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was also aboard. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
In a social media post in 2024, Trump said he "was never on Epstein's Plane, or at his 'stupid' Island". There was no allegation in the prosecutor's email that Trump had committed any crime.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the email.
Newly released records
On one flight described in the newly released records, the only three passengers were Epstein, Trump and a 20-year-old woman whose name was redacted. "On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case," the document stated.
Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier's sexual abuse.
Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution and the justice department charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.
The justice department posted a statement on X saying: "Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] right 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 weaponised against President Trump already," it said.
"Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein's victims."
The latest release of Epstein files includes around 30,000 pages of documents, with many redactions and dozens of video clips, including several purporting to be shot inside a federal detention centre. Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail and the FBI confirmed he died by suicide.
In another email, an unidentified person wrote in 2021 that they had recently been looking through data the government obtained from former Trump aide Steve Bannon's cellphone and found an "image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell".
The government redacted parts of the message indicating who sent and received it.
Another file in the government's release included a grainy photo of Trump seated next to Maxwell. It matches an image of the two at a New York fashion show in 2000.
Unverified records forces release of Epstein files
The disclosures included a scattering of other records that reference Trump, though they provide little indication that the government considered them credible.
Among them was an image of a card purporting to be from Epstein to Larry Nassar, a former gymnastics doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing girls under his care. A handwritten message on the card referenced Trump without naming him.
The justice department later labelled the card a "fake" and said it will continue to release Epstein file documents as required by law.
The postmark on the envelope is from Virginia, not New York, where Epstein was jailed, and the return address does not include Epstein's inmate number, which federal prisons generally require to be included on outgoing letters.
According to another document released on Tuesday, the FBI requested a handwriting analysis of the card, though whether it was conducted or its results were unclear. The justice department said in a statement it was "looking into the validity of this alleged letter".
The government also disclosed several reports of phone calls to an FBI tip line that reference Trump, though it did not identify the callers or indicate whether investigators followed up on the calls or found them credible.
One caller claimed he had driven a limousine for Trump in 1995 and overheard him making a phone call in the back in which he addressed someone as "Jeffrey" and at one point mentioned abusing a girl.
The government also released a video on Tuesday that purports to show Epstein kneeling inside his jail cell, but a Reuters examination found it appears to be a computer-generated clip that first surfaced on social media in 2020, a year after his death.
It was submitted to the justice department by a person who said it purported to show Epstein's death, according to an email also released on Tuesday.
Transparency law
The Trump administration last week published a large cache of Epstein files in an attempt to comply with a new law forcing disclosure on the politically fraught topic.
However, the releases last week contained extensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Earlier this week, Trump downplayed the importance of the Epstein files. Speaking to reporters, he said the material was "just used to deflect against tremendous success" by him and his fellow Republicans.
The new transparency law, overwhelmingly passed by Congress last month, mandated the disclosure of all Epstein files, despite Trump's months-long effort to keep them sealed.
Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who helped spearhead the law requiring the files' release, responded late on Monday to Trump's comments expressing dislike for the release of Epstein documents.
The Kentucky Republican wrote on X: "Trump is blaming me for a bill he eventually signed, while defending his banker friends, Bill Clinton, and 'innocent' visitors to rape island."
"Meanwhile, [US attorney general Pam] Bondi is working fervently to redact, omit, and delete Epstein files she is legally required to release under our bill."
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
Readers seeking crisis support can ring Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25). More information and support with mental health is available at beyondblue.org.au and on 1300 22 4636.
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