Former U.S. President Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on the private jet owned by the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, on eight occasions between 1993 and 1996, according to a newly released email from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
A January 7, 2020, email from an assistant U.S. attorney stated, “Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware).”
The presence of Trump’s name on the flight records does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing. In 2024, Trump wrote: “I was never on Epstein’s Plane.” He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The DOJ has stated that some of the files released on Tuesday “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” against Trump.
While Trump and Epstein were reportedly friends for years, the former president has stated that they had a falling out around 2004, years before Epstein’s initial arrest.
This latest release of documents, totaling over 30,000 pages, is part of the so-called Epstein files, which the DOJ was legally obligated to publish in their entirety by last Friday.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the DOJ clarified: “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 stated on X.
The prosecutor’s email, sent on January 7, 2020, is part of an email chain with the subject line: “RE: Epstein flight records.”
The sender and recipient are redacted, but the email is signed by an assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York, with the name redacted.
The email indicates 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.”
The email specifies that Trump flew on Epstein’s jet “including during the period we would expect to charge in a Maxwell case.”
In 2022, Maxwell received a 20-year prison sentence for crimes that included conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and sex trafficking of a minor. The DOJ at the time said she committed the crimes from at least 1994 to up to, and including in or about, 2004.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The prosecutor’s email does not provide further details about the flights.
A handwritten flight log released by the DOJ in February contains many entries that are difficult to decipher.
However, one entry lists Donald Trump, along with his son Eric, for a flight on August 13, 1995, from PBI (Palm Beach International Airport in Florida) to TEB (Teterboro Airport in New Jersey). It also lists JE and GM, widely believed to be acronyms for Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tuesday’s release of files related to Epstein is the largest to date, 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 failing to meet that deadline.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stated 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.
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