Ex-Trump Employee Drops Massive Bombshell About Epstein Relationship
The former president and chief operating officer of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Jack O'Donnell, told CNN Wednesday that he once had to reprimand Trump for bringing a 19-year-old into the casino with the child sex trafficker in tow.
The incident occurred while O'Donnell was atop the casino, between 1987 and 1990, according to the former C-suite executive.
'He frequently came down to Atlantic City, the two of them, to attend special events,' O'Donnell told the network. 'In my mind, it was his best friend, you know, from really the time I was there for four years.'
Host Erin Burnett then rolled a 2019 clip of Trump in which the 45th president denied reported ties between himself and Epstein, claiming that he only knew the New York financier 'like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,' and that he was 'not a fan' of Epstein's.
But O'Donnell said that didn't square with what he witnessed between the pair during his time running the popular casino.
'One incident that I think kind of proves their closeness and how much they hung out together—one time, a Monday morning, I came in and the commission was waiting, the inspectors were waiting in my office, and Donald and Jeffrey had come into the casino in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 1:00, 1:30 in the morning,' O'Donnell told CNN.
'You know, two buddies, they had three women with them, and the commission was waiting for me because they had determined that the women that they brought down were underaged to be in the casino,' O'Donnell continued. 'And when I asked them how they knew that, by the way, one of them was the number three-ranked tennis player in the world, okay, and this guy happened to be a tennis fan, and he said, 'Jack, I know she's 19 years old.''
The commission effectively gave Trump a free pass that night, deciding not to fine him or the casino for bringing someone underaged into the casino, O'Donnell recalled. But in turn, O'Donnell had to 'read [Trump] the Riot Act.'
'I had to call him and say, 'Look, they've given you a break this time, but if this happens again, the fine is gonna be substantial and it's gonna be on your head,'' O'Donnell said. 'And oh, by the way, it's not gonna look good, you and this guy Epstein, coming down here with these young women.'
O'Donnell said he told Trump at the time that he shouldn't be 'hanging out with' Epstein.
O'Donnell further claimed that the two New York socialites must have been close to hop on a helicopter together to fly down to Atlantic City.
'They were pretty good buddies,' O'Donnell alleged.
Much to Trump's chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trump's popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epstein's so-called 'client list.' And a YouGov/Economist poll conducted earlier this week found that the majority of Americans—67 percent, including 59 percent of self-identified Trump voters—believed that the Trump administration is 'covering up evidence relating to the Epstein case.'
High-profile conservatives, including Elon Musk, have speculated that the administration's continued delay in releasing the Epstein case files is due to the fact that Trump himself might be mentioned in the documents.
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