A video has emerged of Donald Trump partying with Jeffrey Epstein almost three decades ago, after the US president tried to distance himself from the disgraced financier.
The video, shot in 1992 and released from the NBC archive, features Trump smiling and dancing with young women at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He welcomes Epstein to the party and makes jovial conversation with him. At one stage, Trump points out women to Epstein. “Look at her back there – she’s hot,” he says of one. Trump then says something to Epstein that makes him double over with laughter.
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Trump is also seen yanking a woman towards him and patting her behind. The Times says “Trump was said to have organised another party at the club where the guests were only himself, Epstein and 28 young women.”
The video’s resurfacing is uncomfortable for the president who earlier this month tried to distance himself from Epstein after he was arrested over the alleged sex trafficking of minors. The 66-year-old hedge fund manager is awaiting trial and has pleaded not guilty to abusing a “vast network” of underage girls in Florida and New York in the early 2000s.
Following the arrest, Trump told reporters he “knew [Epstein], like everybody in Palm Beach knew him”. But he added: “I had a falling out with him. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
Yet NBC points out that “on the tape, Trump gives Epstein plenty of personal attention”. The footage was recorded for a piece on Trump's newly divorced lifestyle for Faith Daniels' talk show, A Closer Look.
Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy charges. Some of his accusers say he assaulted them when they were as young as 14. He is being detained at a federal jail in Manhattan, though his request to be put under house arrest in his mansion is to be decided by a judge this week.
The new federal charges against Epstein come more than ten years after a previous investigation in Florida ended in a lenient plea deal. Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser Florida state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution, for which he spent 13 months in jail and was registered as a sex offender.
The prosecutor in that case was Alexander Acosta, Trump’s secretary of labour who resigned last week amid scrutiny over how he handled Epstein’s case.
In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy” in an interview with New York magazine. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” he added. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
