Epstein believed Trump was the ‘rat’ who snitched on him to FBI: biographer

The late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein believed Donald Trump was the “rat” who informed on him to the FBI, leading to his 2006 arrest and sentencing for offenses involving underage girls, the Trump biographer Michael Wolff said.

“Trump was aware of what was going on in Epstein’s house for a very long time … and … he then used that against Epstein,” Wolff said.

Wolff made the startling claim on Wednesday — the same day that, in the latest in a series of bombshell revelations, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has been told his name appears in the so-called Epstein files that recorded investigations into the financier’s conduct.

Trump’s links to Epstein have billowed into the public consciousness in the past month after a Department of Justice attempt to shut down calls from Trump supporters for the release of Epstein’s supposed “client list” spectacularly backfired.

Since then, repeated attempts by Trump and allies to distract from the scandal have failed; House Republican leadership has adjourned early for the summer, to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files; and Trump’s own DOJ has said it wants to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who was imprisoned after being convicted of sex trafficking charges.

Epstein and Trump are known to have been close friends for some time, with new photos of their socializing released this week by CNN.

But Wolff, who was speaking to The Court of History, a podcast hosted by the former Clinton aide turned Lincoln biographer Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz, a Princeton history professor, said that in 2004 the two men fell out over what Epstein alleged to be a money laundering scheme involving a Florida property, Trump, and a Russian oligarch.

“And at that point,” Wolff said, “the investigation of Epstein began, and Epstein … believed that it began because Trump notified the police about what was going on at Epstein’s house, which Trump was fully aware of, because he was a frequent visitor to the house.”

Epstein was arrested but ultimately received a lenient deal from Florida authorities, pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18, and being sentenced to 18 months in a low-security jail.

His avoidance of federal charges became an issue in 2019, when he was arrested again, while Trump was first in the White House. In August that year, Epstein died in federal custody in New York. Authorities said he killed himself.

Trump has said his friendship with Epstein ended because Epstein was a “creep.”

On Wednesday, Blumenthal asked: “So Epstein believed that Donald Trump was an informant, or in Trump’s own words, a rat.”

Wolff said yes, and confirmed that Epstein told him so personally.

Wolff has frequently detailed his extensive interviews with Epstein, sometimes sharing excerpts. Many were carried out during research for Wolff’s first book on Trump’s entry to politics, Fire and Fury, which was a huge bestseller in 2018.

Three more Wolff Trump books followed, two on his first term and 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, then last year All or Nothing, about how Trump returned to power despite criminal convictions, multimillion-dollar civil penalties and undecided criminal cases involving the retention of classified information and his incitement of the January 6th insurrection.

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