Musk says Trump is in the 'Epstein files.' Here's where the president has shown up in unsealed records.
Elon Musk has an allegation about why President Donald Trump hasn't released all of the so-called "Epstein files."
He's in them.
Musk's claim, tying the president to the dead financier and sex trafficker, is the latest punch in the escalating beef between the richest man in the world and the president of the United States.
"Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public," Musk posted on X Thursday afternoon. "Have a nice day, DJT!"
"Mark this post for the future," he added in a follow-up post. "The truth will come out."
Musk didn't elaborate on his claim or provide evidence that backed up his assertion. House Democrats nonetheless seized on Musk's claim, with two members of the oversight committee demanding a response from Justice Department officials.
Trump's relationship with Epstein has long been part of the public record. None of that record supports any notion that the president was involved in Epstein's sex trafficking.
The two were friends in the 1980s, spending time in the same wealthy social circles in Palm Beach and Manhattan, and Trump's name has repeatedly come up in litigation related to Epstein. The two had a falling-out in the 2000s.
Trump has previously denied involvement in any wrongdoing related to Epstein. In 2019, following criminal charges against the financier, Trump said he "wasn't a fan."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Musk's claims about Trump and Epstein were "unfortunate."
"This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted," Leavitt said in a statement. "The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again."
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump indicated he supported making government documents related to Epstein public if he were elected.
It's not clear exactly what Musk meant by the "Epstein files." Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have promised to release documents in possession of the Justice Department related to the wealthy pedophile.
Other agencies that may have Epstein-related documents, like the CIA, have been publicly silent about the matter.
We already have a lot of Epstein documents
Bondi and Patel have published one batch of documents, in February.
Aside from a three-page list of evidence seized during a 2019 criminal investigation into Epstein, it included only information that had previously been made public during the criminal case against his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and in other civil litigation.
Among those records are a copy of one of Epstein's contact books, which lists Trump and some of Trump's family members among hundreds of entries. The records also include some flight logs for Epstein's private jets; Trump is mentioned as a passenger.
Trump's Mar-a-Lago club featured prominently in Maxwell's criminal trial. One woman who said Epstein raped her testified that the financier took her to the club when she was 14 years old and introduced her to Trump. Another of Epstein's most prominent accusers, Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, has said she was recruited as a victim by Maxwell while at Mar-a-Lago. A Mar-a-Lago employee briefly testified at Maxwell's criminal trial about Giuffre's father's employment at the club.
Trump's name has also been included in long-running civil litigation related to Epstein. Documents including Trump's name became public in January 2024, when a federal judge unsealed and unredacted thousands of pages of court documents in a lawsuit that Giuffre brought against Maxwell. The judge had previously referred to Trump with the pseudonym "Doe 174."
The lawsuit did not accuse Trump of any wrongdoing. Many of the people whose names were initially kept under seal in the court documents were identified as Epstein's victims or had only an incidental connection to the financier.
The documents from that lawsuit include excerpts of a deposition by Johanna Sjoberg, who has accused Epstein of rape. At one point during the deposition, Sjoberg was asked about giving massages to various associates of Epstein at his residences, and she denied giving any to Trump. Asked about a trip to Atlantic City, she described visiting one of Trump's casinos after flying on Epstein's private jet.
"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,'" Sjoberg said in the deposition.
Other documents mention Trump only in passing, referencing him as one of the many high-profile people who have been friends with Epstein.
Epstein — who also spent time with other powerful figures, including Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Steve Bannon, and Ehud Barak — died by suicide in a federal Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. As part of the same investigation, Justice Department prosecutors brought sex-trafficking charges against his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in late 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Musk was famously photographed with Maxwell at a 2014 Vanity Fair event. He has said she "photobombed" him.
The Tesla CEO has denied a connection to Epstein. Following a 2023 subpoena in litigation related to JPMorgan's ties to Epstein, Musk said he never took financial advice from him.
"That cretin never advised me on anything whatsoever," Musk posted on social media at the time.
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