Epstein affair | Trump caught lying

(New York) Actor Mark Ruffalo, fierce critic of Donald Trump, had to apologize pitifully.

“Sorry, everyone. Apparently, these images are fakes generated by AI,” he wrote on January 4, 2024 on social networks after relaying two photos showing the former president and candidate for the White House surrounded by young girls on a plane.

In her initial message, the Hollywood star was indignant: “Disgusting. MAGA wants to make everyone on these flights look like pedophiles, except for the one guy who smiles in the middle of a group of young girls all on the way with him to Epstein’s “Fantasy Island”. »

A few days later, Donald Trump took the opportunity to get on his high horse.

“This is what the Democrats are doing to their Republican opponent, who is well ahead of them in the polls. It’s AI, and it’s very dangerous for our country! “, he wrote on Truth Social. “Also, I was never on Epstein’s plane or on his ‘stupid’ island. »

We already knew that Donald Trump had lied about being on the plane of the late financier and sex offender. But concrete proof was added on Monday, accompanied by a surprise.

“At least eight flights”

Shortly before midnight, the Justice Department released nearly 30,000 new pages of files related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2021 for sex trafficking of minors.

Among these files is an email dated January 20, 2020 and signed by one of the federal prosecutors in New York. This person informs colleagues that flight logs “indicate that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein’s private plane far more often than previously reported (or known to us), including during the period for which we would expect to bring charges in a Maxwell case.”

The person mentions “at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was present.” She mentions a flight where the only three passengers were Epstein, Trump and a woman then aged 20 whose name was redacted. On two other flights, two of the passengers were potential witnesses in a Maxwell case.

The name of the author of the email is redacted. It could be Maurene Comey, who led the lawsuit against Maxwell and who was fired without explanation last July.

A fraction of the files

The presence of Donald Trump on board Jeffrey Epstein’s plane was discussed during the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell. The email released Monday evening will once again force the president to explain his lie.

A few hours before the disclosure of the new tranche of files, Donald Trump had denounced this operation, which had been demanded for years by many of his supporters.

“This whole Epstein thing is a way to distract from the enormous success that the Republican Party has,” he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.

He also deplored that the disclosure of the files could harm the reputation of people who appear there without having been accused of criminal acts.

As of this writing, the Justice Department has released approximately 130,000 pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, only a fraction of the total records in its possession. All files should have been made public last Friday, according to a law adopted in November.

Mentions of Donald Trump are more numerous in the new installment than in the first, published Friday, where many photos of Bill Clinton attracted attention.

Among the new documents are at least two subpoenas sent to Mar-a-Lago in 2021 seeking documents related to the Maxwell case.

A “lie” letter?

Also included are several reports obtained by the FBI concerning Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and parties organized at their properties in the early 2000s. None of the documents specify whether these reports were followed up or if they were corroborated.

One thing is certain, the Department of Justice was quick to issue a warning Tuesday morning on social networks: “Some of these documents contain false and sensationalist accusations targeting the president (…). To be clear: these accusations are baseless and false. »

The department was likely referring to an allegation made in an FBI file dated October 27, 2020, a few days before the election of Joe Biden. According to the document, a woman whose name was redacted contacted the FBI and said, referring to Donald Trump: “he raped me.” Another woman whose name was also redacted is also cited. “Donald J. Trump raped her and Jeffrey Epstein,” she said. There is no indication that the FBI attempted to corroborate these allegations.

The FBI also said Tuesday afternoon that it had confirmed that a letter attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and written in August 2019 was a fake. It is also among the documents published Monday evening. “Our president shares our love for young girls,” we can read in this letter addressed to Larry Nassar, former doctor of the American Gymnastics Federation. The latter was sentenced in 2018 to a long prison sentence for sexual assaults committed on women and girls, including several athletes.

To therefore be included among the things that Donald Trump can deny, in the same way as any visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s island, until proven otherwise.