Everything Epstein, Part I

During a good part of the 1990s and early 2000s, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were two highly visible, wealthy “bachelors” in their 40s, as well as men about town in Manhattan, New York; Palm Beach, Florida; and most anywhere the pair wanted to fly to in their private jets. Trump does appear in Epstein private aircraft manifests during those same years. The two had a close social relationship for a period of nearly 15 years, as well sourced and documented by The New York Times.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” said Trump to New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

At the time, Epstein was a wealthy tax and wealth fund advisor, primarily to Lex Wexner, the CEO and co-founder of L Brands, for several years the largest global manufacturer and retailer of women’s clothing in the world, including ownership of The Limited, Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, Lane Bryant and Victoria’s Secret. Wexner built then and still owns the largest home in the state of Ohio, the second-largest home, adjacent to his back door, was owned by Epstein.

Epstein hosted lavish dinner parties at his incredible townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Dinner guests might include Bill Gates, Katie Couric, Bill Clinton or numerous politicians of that day, at the time, primarily Democrats. Trump was living large and having a very public affair, documented in the tabloids with aspiring actress and Georgia girl Marla Maples, who later would become his second wife.

Trump divorced his first wife Ivana Trump in 1992, and married Maples in 1993. He would divorce Maples in 1999, and began again dating models and aspiring actresses, marrying his current wife, then Melania Knaus, in 2005. Trump would not become a truly national figure until after the premiere of his NBC television series, The Apprentice, in 2004. Epstein was a well-known jet-setter and patron of the arts, and his first arrest for sex trafficking in Palm Beach County came in 2005.

In 2003, Trump and Epstein were in a bidding battle over a prominent beachfront home in Palm Beach. Trump already owned Mar-a-Lago and Epstein lived in a smaller but equally stunning compound two miles away; but both wanted this prize property. Epstein thought he had won the silent auction for the parcel at $36 million. But Trump somehow got in a bid of $40 million after Epstein and won the auction. Epstein was furious. Shortly after, Trump revoked his membership to the Mar-a-Lago private club and began publicly referring to him as a “creep.”

It is suspected that it was Trump himself who went to the Palm Beach Police, reporting that Epstein’s mansion and compound were frequently visited by under-age girls, implying something illicit was going on. Ghislaine Maxwell, alternately Epstein’s girlfriend, business partner, and recruiter of young women, would recruit one of Epstein’s since most visible victims (who committed suicide in April 2025). Virginia Roberts Giuffre was then a 15-year-old, working in the Mar-a-Lago spa as an attendant, where her father also worked.

Maxwell recruited Giuffre to come to the Epstein mansion, where she was later asked to spend time with Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom. As the Palm Beach County Police and district attorney’s office began to dig, dozens of under-age young women came forward with allegations of rape and sex trafficking of minors. Soon the Palm Beach County Police and D.A.’s office came to the Epstein compound with search warrants, conducting a raid and search for evidence. Apparently, Epstein knew they were coming, and several computers and other potential evidence had been removed in advance of the raid. Epstein was soon arrested and initially charged with sex trafficking.

By December of that year, Epstein recruited a legal defense dream team, including Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, regional legal powerhouses Jack Goldberger and Roy Black as well as nationally known attorneys Kenneth Starr and Gerald Lefcourt.  Palm Beach County child sex crimes prosecutor Daliah Weiss (now a federal circuit court judge) bowed out of the case as Epstein hired her husband’s law firm. Weiss was known to be among the toughest prosecutors in south Florida for child sex crimes. The FBI and feds took over the case that spring, and a federal grand jury indicted Epstein on only one felony charge of solicitation of prostitution, the equivalent of what a “John” propositioning an adult sex work might face.

That single solicitation charge in the Florida Epstein case does not even address the victim’s age of 14 at the time of the crime. Epstein spent one night in the Palm Beach County Jail and was released the next day on a $3,000 bond. The case dragged on, until 2007, when Epstein suddenly signed a non-prosecution agreement, called by many legal experts the “Deal of the Century.” He plead to two felony prostitution-related charges and voluntarily registered as a sex offender. None of Epstein’s victims were even alerted to plea negotiations being underway.

Instead of decades in prison, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in the Palm Beach County Jail. He actually served only 13 months in a private wing of the jail reserved for snitches and others under witness protection. He spent only his nights in jail, as part of a work-release program six days a week for 12 hours each day and he was out by 2009, completing his sentence and allowed to travel anywhere while his probation and house arrest continued, as long as he returns home within 24 hours. Epstein shifted his travels to his private island compound, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands. His private jet, a 727 could travel from almost any airport in south Florida to St. Thomas in a matter of hours.

(Note: This is part one of a two-part column. Part two will be published in the Aug. 7 edition of The Champion.)

Bill Crane is political analyst and commentator in metro Atlanta, as well as a columnist for The Champion, DeKalb Free Press and Georgia Trend. Crane is a DeKalb native and business owner, living in Scottdale. You can contact him or comment on a column at bill.csicrane@gmail.com.