Trump flew on Epstein jet eight times in the 90s: email

In an email dated January 7, 2020, the unidentified prosecutor wrote that flight records showed Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet eight times during the 1990s. 

Among those were ​at least four flights on which Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was also aboard. 

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

In a social media post in 2024, Trump said he "was never on Epstein's Plane, or at his 'stupid' Island." 

There was ⁠no allegation in the prosecutor's email that Trump had committed any crime. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the email.

On one flight described in the newly released records, the only three passengers were Epstein, Trump and a 20-year-old woman whose name was redacted. 

"On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case," the document stated.

Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. 

Trump has said their association ended in the mid-2000s and that he was never aware of the financier's sexual abuse. 

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution. 

The Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.

The Department of Justice posted a statement on X saying: "Some of these documents ‌contain untrue and sensationalist claims made ​against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponised ‍against President Trump already."

"Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these documents with the legally required protections for Epstein's victims," the department said.

The latest release of Epstein files includes around 30,000 pages of documents, with many redactions, and dozens of video clips, including several purporting to be shot inside a federal detention centre. 

Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail. His death was ruled a suicide.

In another email, an unidentified person wrote in 2021 that they had recently been looking through data the government obtained from former Trump aide Steve Bannon's mobile phone and found an "image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell." 

The government redacted parts of the message indicating who sent and received it.

Another file in the government's release included a grainy photo of Trump seated next to Maxwell. It matches an image of the two ​at a New York fashion show in 2000.

The disclosures included a scattering of other records that reference Trump, though they give little indication that ‌the government considered them to be credible.

On Monday, Trump downplayed the importance of the Epstein files. 

Australian Associated Press