The brother of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has contradicted Donald Trump’s claims that the pair were not as close as many believe. The president continues to come under pressure to release government files related to the disgraced financier and sex offender, but continues to resist doing so.
Speculation is rife as to how close the pair were, with the two high-profile figures known to have frequented the same New York high-society circles throughout the 1990s, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the former real estate magnate sent Epstein an intimate letter to mark his 50th birthday. The US President has denied the allegation and has sued the news outlet’s parent company Dow Jones and its owner Rupert Murdoch. Trump has attempted to play down their relationship whilst speaking widely about their public fallout in the mid-2000s, but Mark Epstein insists that the two were close friends. He claimed: “They were very friendly. Everyone who was around knew they were very friendly.”
He told Al Arabiya English: “Jeffrey used to speak about times he spent with Trump.
“Trump was in Jeffrey’s office quite a number of times. The people who worked in his office could testify to that.
“I don’t know why he [Trump] said he was never there because that’s a very provable lie.
“They were good friends. They used to travel on each other’s planes. They used to spend time together.
“There’s lots of photographs of Jeffrey at Mar-A-Lago at different events and Trump’s wedding. For him [Trump] to deny they were friends, is a big lie.”
Trump had previously vowed to release the files related to Epstein if he were re-elected as president but has so far refused to do so, with reports in the Wall Street Journal stating that Trump has been told that his name is included, a claim the president denies.
The inclusion of a name in the files is not proof of any wrongdoing.
Jeffrey Epstein was well known in powerful American circles throughout the 1990s, where he was regularly spotted with influential figures in the world of politics, business and royalty.
Mark Epstein is unsure of just how close his brother was to powerful figures but is sure that he was well acquainted with influential people.
He added: “I don’t know. We didn’t see each other very much even though we were always in communication.
“Jeffrey was a personable guy who travelled in those circles and he met a lot of people in the work he did and he was in that circle so I don’t find that unusual.”