Donald Trump occasionally came to Jeffrey Epstein’s house for dinner but did not sit at the table, instead dining in the kitchen with one of the disgraced financier’s former employees, newly unsealed documents claim.
The former president, who had a residence in Palm Beach near to Epstein’s, would visit for meals but did not have massages there because he “had his own spa”.
There is no indication that Mr Trump committed any wrongdoing and he has not been charged with involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Despite his publicly documented relationship with the late paedophile, Mr Trump has only been named a handful of times in the court documents, which were made public this week.
In the latest batch of documents, three of which were unsealed on Friday, former Epstein employee Juan Alessi made reference to Mr Trump’s visits.
Asked if the former president ever stayed at Epstein’s residence in Palm Beach, Mr Alessi replied: “No, never… He would come, have dinner. He never sat at the table. He [would] eat with me in the kitchen.
When asked if Mr Trump ever had a massage at the house, Mr Alessi replied: “No. Because he’s got his own spa.”
Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, also testified that she had never given Mr Trump a massage, but supported evidence that the pair were friendly.
In part of her testimony, Ms Sjoberg claimed Epstein once “called up” the former president and visited one of his casinos after his private plane was diverted to Atlantic City in New Jersey.
Ms Sjoberg said that while travelling on the plane with the disgraced financier the pilots had said that they were unable to land in New York as planned.
“Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to — I don’t recall the name of the casino, but — we’ll go to the casino’,” the testimony read.
Prior to the financier’s arrest, Mr Trump had described Epstein as a “terrific guy”. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. 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,” he told New York Magazine in 2002.
Mr Trump distanced himself from Epstein when he was arrested in 2019. At the time the former president claimed they had not spoken in about 15 years.
