From left, Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 12, 2000.
Davidoff Studios Photography | Archive Photos | Getty Images
President Donald Trump, in a call two decades ago to a Florida police chief, bashed his former friend Jeffrey Epstein and called Epstein’s procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, “evil,” the now-retired cop recounted to FBI agents in 2019, according to a document released by the Department of Justice.
Trump called the then-Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter “to tell him ‘thank goodness you’ [are] stopping [Epstein], everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Reiter told the FBI in October 2019, according to the FBI document, known as a 302.
Reiter’s name is redacted from the 302. But the document identifies the interview subject as the person who had been Palm Beach’s police chief at the time of the department’s investigation of Epstein, who was Reiter.
Reiter told the Miami Herald, which first reported the document, that Trump called him in 2006, after the police department’s probe of Epstein became publicly known.
The document came to light hours after Maxwell’s lawyer called on Trump to grant her executive clemency, so that she could speak “honestly” about what she knows. Maxwell, earlier Monday, refused to testify to a House committee.
Trump told Reiter that he had thrown Epstein out of his club, Mar-a-Lago, which is located in Palm Beach, the summary said.
“Trump told him [Reiter] people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting,” according to the FBI’s 302 summary of its interview with Reiter.
“Trump said Maxwell was Epstein’s operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her,’ ” the FBI said in the 302.
U.S. President Donald Trump sits behind a bill he signed to end the partial government shutdown, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 3, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Epstein later pleaded guilty to Florida state charges in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, in exchange for avoiding federal criminal prosecution.
Reiter’s interview with the FBI in October 2019 came two months after Epstein killed himself in a New York federal jail after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
During the 2006 call, “Trump told [Reiter] that he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and Trump got the hell out of there,” the summary said.
“Trump was one of the very first people to call when people found out that they were investigating Epstein,” the summary said.
In an April 2019 email released last year by House Democrats, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls,” according to a copy of that message purportedly between the two men.
It is unclear what the phrase “knew about the girls” meant.
Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
The White House in November said, “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees.”
The White House, when asked for comment on Monday night by CNBC about the FBI summary, referred questions to the Department of Justice.
The DOJ said, “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”
The summary is among millions of documents made public by the DOJ in late January that are related to Epstein and to Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for crimes related to procuring underage girls for him to sexually abuse.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump are shown in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 23, 2025 as part of a new trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. U.S.
U.S. Justice Department | Via Reuters
Maxwell on Monday appeared virtually before the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the Epstein case, but refused to answer questions, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Her attorney, David Oscar Marcus, in a statement, said that Maxwell is willing to “speak fully and honestly” if Trump grants her executive clemency. Clemency can include a pardon, which would wipe away Maxwell’s conviction, or commuting her sentence to allow her release from prison earlier than scheduled.
“Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” Marcus said. “For example, both President Trump and President [Bill] Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”
Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have been subpoenaed to testify to the Oversight Committee about Epstein. They are scheduled to be deposed there in late February.
