Donald Trump called the Palm Beach police chief in 2006 to raise concerns about
Jeffrey Epstein, according to a newly released document from the Justice Department's Epstein files.
Former Chief Michael Reiter said Trump told him "everyone" in New York knew
what Epstein was doing. Trump called Epstein's behavior disgusting and urged investigators to look also into Ghislaine Maxwell, describing her as "evil," according to the FBI's summary of the interview.
Trump also said he had once been around Epstein when teenagers were present and had left immediately, according to Reiter's account.
Reiter could not immediately be reached for comment. He told the Miami Herald the call came in July 2006, shortly after Epstein's arrest on a solicitation charge in Palm Beach County. The FBI interviewed Reiter in October 2019, two months after Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Epstein document renews scrutiny over how much Trump knew and when
Reiter's account of the conversation appears to contradict what Trump told reporters in July 2019 when asked whether he had any suspicions that Epstein was abusing underage girls.
"No, I had no idea," Trump said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters she could not confirm that the 2006 call with Reiter took place. She said that if it had, it only supports Trump's claim that he expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago.
"What President Trump has always said is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club, because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep," Leavitt said.
That claim has been a central part of Trump's defense against questions about his relationship with Epstein. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One in 2025, Trump said Epstein had been poaching employees from the club's spa without his knowledge.
When it happened a second time, Trump said, he told Epstein to leave.
But U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said a document he viewed in an unredacted portion of the files appeared to contradict that account. Raskin said the document was a 2009 email from Epstein to Maxwell that summarized a conversation between lawyers for the two men.
In it, Epstein's attorneys characterized Trump as saying Epstein was not a member at Mar-a-Lago but a guest, and that he had never been asked to leave. That passage had been redacted in the public release.
"I know it seems to be at odds with some things that President Trump has been saying recently about how he had kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club," Raskin told reporters on Feb. 9.
Who is Michael Reiter, police chief who pursued case against Epstein?
Reiter led the Palm Beach Police Department when the Epstein investigation began in 2005. A stepmother had reported that her 14-year-old stepdaughter was molested by Epstein. That complaint led to a broader probe.
Detectives eventually identified dozens of teenage victims,
many from Royal Palm Beach High school, who said they had been brought to Epstein's mansion under the guise of giving massages.
When then-state attorney Barry Krischer declined to bring serious charges against Epstein, Reiter referred the case to the FBI, prompting a federal investigation. The investigation ended with the controversial 2008 nonprosecution agreement brokered by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, who Trump appointed as his labor secretary in 2017.
Acosta resigned from the position two years following renewed scrutiny of his handling of the Epstein case.
The memo detailing Reiter's conversation with Trump is among thousands of documents released under a law requiring the Justice Department to publish its Epstein files.
Earlier releases in December included flight records placing Trump on Epstein's private plane at least eight times between 1993 and 1996. An assistant U.S. attorney in New York wrote in a January 2020 email that this was "many more times than previously has been reported."
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to recruit and groom young girls, was listed as a passenger on at least four of those flights.