In July 2006, Donald Trump called then-Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter to alert him that Jeffrey Epstein’s activities with teenage girls were widely known in New York and Palm Beach.
“Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Trump told Reiter, according to a 2019 FBI interview with the former police chief contained in Justice Department Epstein case files.
The October 2019 interview details Trump’s involvement in the early stages of the Palm Beach investigation. Reiter told agents that Trump identified Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as his “operative” and described her as “evil,” urging authorities to focus on her. Trump also said he had been around Epstein when teenagers were present and “got the hell out of there,” and that he had expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club.
Reiter, who retired as chief in 2009, confirmed the FBI interview to the Miami Herald and said the conversation with Trump occurred in July 2006. The interview followed Reiter’s request for FBI agents to collect two boxes of Epstein case files from the home of Joe Recarey, the lead detective on the investigation.
The four-page interview largely summarized the Palm Beach Police Department’s investigation, which began in 2003. Epstein received federal immunity in 2007, pleading guilty in state court to two counts of solicitation involving a minor. He served 13 months in Palm Beach County jail, most on work release that allowed him to leave for his West Palm Beach office.
