A former Florida police chief said he received a call from Donald Trump in 2006 in which the now-president told him "everyone" knows about the disgraced financier's behaviour, according to an FBI document released in the latest batch of Epstein files.
The document is a written record of a 2019 FBI interview with the former Palm Beach police chief, who alleges Trump called him after the department launched an investigation into Epstein and said: "Thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this".
The officer's name is redacted, but the document identifies the interview subject as the Palm Beach police chief at the time of its Epstein investigation. That was Michael Reiter, who told the Miami Herald that he received the call from Trump.
The president has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has said he did not know about his crimes. The alleged call, however, is likely to raise further questions about what Trump knew and when.
Asked by reporters in 2019 - when Epstein was arrested by federal agents for sex trafficking - if he had "any suspicions" about the disgraced financier, Trump said: "No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven't spoken to him in many, many years."
