Ex-police chief said Trump told him in 2006 'everyone' knew of Epstein's behaviour

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."

According to the FBI summary of the interview, Reiter said Trump told him in a July 2006 call that he had thrown Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club and "people in New York knew he was disgusting".

Reiter also claims Trump told him Ghislaine Maxwell was Epstein's "operative", and "she is evil and to focus on her".

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in luring underage girls for Epstein.

Reiter also told the FBI that Trump said he was around Epstein when he was with teenagers and that he "got the hell out of there".

According to the document, he said Trump was one of the "very first people to call" Florida police when he heard they were investigating Epstein.

In 2006, Palm Beach police were investigating the disgraced financier for the alleged sexual exploitation of underage girls. The case was later turned over to federal prosecutors, who in 2008 made a controversial plea deal with Epstein that included a non-prosecution agreement that protected him from more serious charges.

In a statement to the BBC, a justice department official said: "We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago."

At a briefing on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the reported call and said it "may or may not have happened in 2006. I don't know the answer."

"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," she said. "And that remains true in this call. If it did happen it corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning."

The BBC has also contacted Reiter for comment.

Trump and Epstein socialised and appeared in photographs together in the 1990s, but the president and the White House have repeatedly said he was in the dark about Epstein's crimes before he broke off contact with him in around 2004 - years before he was first arrested.

Trump has said their falling out came after he learned Epstein had been trying to "steal" his employees from Mar-a-Lago.

"When I heard about it, I told him, we don't want you taking our people," Trump said in July. "He was fine and then not too long after that he did it again and I said 'outta here'."

Reports of the alleged call came after Maxwell - who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein - testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee on Monday.

During the closed-door deposition, Maxwell refused to answer questions and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, invoking her right to remain silent, Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said.

Maxwell's lawyer claimed she was "prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump".

Trump has said he has not thought about giving a pardon to Maxwell.