Alex Smithand
Anthony Reuben,BBC Verify
US President Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on the private jet of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein eight times between 1993 and 1996, a new email released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) says.
“Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware),” reads the 7 January 2020 email from an assistant US attorney.
Trump’s name on the flight record does not indicate wrongdoing. In 2024, Trump wrote: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane”. He has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The DOJ says some files released on Tuesday “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” against Trump.
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s for years, but the president has said they fell out in about 2004 – years before Epstein was first arrested.
The latest release of documents – running to more than 30,000 pages – is part of the so-called Epstein files the DOJ was legally required to publish in their entirety by last Friday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the DOJ said: “Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI 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 weaponized against President Trump already.”
“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 DOJ statement on X said.
The prosecutor’s email was sent on 7 January 2020 and is part of an email chain which includes the subject heading: “RE: Epstein flight records.”
The sender and recipient are redacted, but the bottom of the email says assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York – with the name redacted.
The email states that Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which [Epstein’s associate Ghislaine] Maxwell was also present. He is listed as having traveled with, among others and at various times, Marla Maples, his daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric.”
“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…” – the rest of the sentence has been redacted.
It continues: “On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case.”
In 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes including conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and sex trafficking of a minor.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 as he awaited his trial on sex trafficking charges.
The prosecutor’s email does not provide more details about the flights.
A handwritten flight log released by the DOJ in February appears to have many entries which are difficult to read.
However, one lists Donald Trump, as well as his son Eric, for a flight on 13 August 1995 from PBI (Palm Beach International Airport in Florida) to TEB (Teterboro Airport in New Jersey). It also lists
Tuesday’s release of files related to Epstein is the largest so far – but many more documents held by the DOJ are yet to be made public. Several thousand files have been published across eight batches since Friday.
The DOJ missed last Friday’s deadline set by Congress to publish all its files related to Epstein – including photos, videos and investigative materials.
The department has faced criticism from survivors and lawmakers from across the aisle for its failure to meet that deadline.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on the day of the deadline that not all the files would be made public immediately, and that more would be published over the coming weeks.
“There’s a lot of eyes looking at these, so we want to make sure that when we do produce the materials that we’re producing, we’re protecting every single victim,” he said on Friday.
