Trump live updates: Democrats reiterate calls for release of Epstein files after Trump promises ‘pertinent’ documents

The Brooklyn-born Epstein, a former high school math teacher who later founded consulting and financial management firms, cultivated a wide circle of rich and famous friends and associates.

He was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, including Trump, Democratic President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Britain’s Prince Andrew. Some friends and clients flew on his private plane and visited his private Caribbean island.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors. He served 13 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. That punishment is now widely considered too lenient.

In July 2019, the Justice Department charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls, in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty.

Epstein died on August 10, 2019, at age 66 by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell, an autopsy concluded. He was never tried on the 2019 charges.

The White House engaged in an unsuccessful pressure campaign to try and stop the Wall Street Journal from releasing a bombshell story about President Donald Trump sending a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein this past week, according to a report.

Amid intense public criticism around the so-called “Epstein Files”, White House officials and staffers were on “a f****** warpath” to try to prevent the Journal from publishing the alleged lewd letter, which contained a drawing of the outline of a naked woman, Rolling Stone reported Thursday.

Trump directed his staff to prioritize the matter. Staff reportedly reached out to several contacts and pitched different angles to try to get the Journal, which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, to drop the story.

Ultimately, the story was published, which only intensified scrutiny over the administration’s handling of the files.

Read more from Ariana Baio:

Pranksters filled Trump Tower’s gift shop with merchandise featuring pictures of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein with the president.

The Good Liars, a political comedy duo of Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler, posted photos of postcards with an old photograph of Donald Trump and Epstein they say were among the souvenirs at the president’s Manhattan skyscraper.

The duo confirmed to The Independent they were responsible for the prank. The Independent reached out to the Trump Tower store and a representative declined to confirm the incident or comment further.

A similar prank was recently carried out in London when activists put the same old photo of Trump and Epstein on a bus shelter near the U.S. embassy ahead of the president’s state visit to the United Kingdom in September, according to an Instagram post from the group Everyone Hates Elon.

President Donald Trump had socialized with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein decades ago when he was a New York real estate mogul.

In his second presidential term, Trump has been embroiled in controversy surrounding the feds’ unreleased files on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who faced federal sex trafficking charges when he died in jail in 2019.

Trump’s past connection with Epstein has also been under scrutiny as of late. Here is a timeline of their relationship, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal:

1992: Trump and Epstein are taped by NBC partying at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.2002: Trump tells New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.”2008: Epstein pleads guilty in Florida to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. Trump has said his relationship with Epstein ended before Epstein pleaded guilty to the sex offense.2019: Epstein is arrested on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls, and Trump, who is in his first term as president, said he hadn’t talked to Epstein for roughly 15 years. He said in the Oval Office at the time, “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”

A poster of Donald Trump with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was put up in London ahead of the president’s state visit to the United Kingdom in September.

More than a week after Donald Trump’s base looked like it might be fracturing over the Justice Department’s “no client list” Jeffrey Epstein memo, MAGA world got its “perfect offramp” in the ongoing saga thanks to the Wall Street Journal’s latest bombshell.

While on the surface the WSJ’s story – which the president fought tooth and nail to keep from being published – should have inflamed the turmoil on the right as it further exposed just how close the president once was with the deceased sex trafficker, it instead offered MAGA pundits and influencers the chance to join Trump in lambasting their shared enemy – the mainstream press.

All of the chaos caused by the bombshell report in The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump sent a bawdy 50th birthday note to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein masked the fact he received a significant win.

Eric Garcia reports on how Republicans achieved something on their wishlist for decades… and what might come next.

Here’s how talk of the case came storming back into the national conversation.