| | | Donald Trump-Jeffrey Epstein Allegations by Michael Wolff: Five Takeaways
Published Nov 01, 2024 at 8:44 AM EDTUpdated Nov 01, 2024 at 12:25 PM EDT
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Donald Trump-Jeffrey Epstein Allegations By Michael Wolff: Five Takeaways
By Ewan Palmer
News Reporter
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Author and journalist Michael Wolff has made a new series of claims surrounding the relationship between former President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, including what he described as their competitive playboy lifestyles, allegations about a real estate deal in Florida, and a claim that embarrassing photographs of Trump were found in Epstein's safe.
Wolff, who has written a number of books about Trump, discussed the friendship between the Republican candidate and the late convicted sex offender on his Fire and Fury podcast. The episode was released on Thursday, just five days before the election.
Below, Newsweek has compiled five key moments from Wolff's podcast. Newsweek has not independently verified these claims and has contacted Trump's team for comment via email on Friday outside of business hours. This article will be updated if a response is received.
Wolff did not speculate that Trump was involved in the sex trafficking, and other crimes, committed by the billionaire financier for years, but he did say that the former president would have been aware of "girls" being at Epstein's home.
Wolff said that Epstein was his "secret source" when he wrote his trilogy of books about Trump's time in the Oval Office. Wolff's books on Trump have been questioned over their accuracy previously and were dismissed by White House press secretary under Trump from 2017 to 2019, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said at the time that Fire and Fury contained "mistake after mistake after mistake." She questioned Wolff's integrity, saying, "I think you have to look at this author's track record," before referring to the book as "tabloid gossip" and "full of lies." Wolff has said his reporting is backed up by " dozens of hours" of audio recordings of senior staff.
Wolff said these new claims stem from nearly 100 hours of interviews he conducted with Epstein before the latter died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein's death in 2019 left numerous unanswered questions regarding his associations with powerful figures, including Trump. Though his death was ruled a suicide, a portion of the public has remained skeptical about what actually happened and even Epstein's lawyers have challenged that ruling.
Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997. Author Michael Wolf discussed their relationship on his podcast. Davidoff Studios/Getty ImagesEpstein Said Trump Had 'No Scruples'Wolff makes frequent references to how and why Trump and Epstein became close friends in the 1980s.
"I think they saw themselves as embodying this moment, which was money, women, and status," Wolff said. "We now see Epstein as the sexual monster. But certainly, at least in Epstein's telling, he and Trump were, in this regard, brothers in arms."
Wolff added that Epstein believed that he could hang around with the "vulgarian" Trump to make his actions appear more reasonable in comparison.
"I certainly never got an indication that Epstein was questioning himself. But in fact, he seemed to regard Trump's behavior as somehow proving that his own was far more reasonable... he said that Trump has no scruples," Wolff said. |
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