A newly released FBI document states that President Donald Trump personally contacted the Palm Beach, Florida, police chief in 2006 to thank him for investigating Jeffrey Epstein and urged authorities to focus on Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as reported by The New York Post.
The account appears in a summary of an October 2019 FBI interview with Michael Reiter, who served as Palm Beach police chief from 2001 to 2009.
The summary was included among millions of records released by the Department of Justice in connection with the Epstein case.
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According to the FBI interview summary, Trump was “one of the very first people to call when people found out” authorities were investigating Jeffrey Epstein for alleged sexual abuse involving girls as young as 14.
At the time, Epstein was under investigation in Palm Beach for hiring underage girls to give him massages.
The document states that Trump told Reiter:
“Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
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Trump also told the police chief that he “got the hell out of there” when he was around Epstein when teenagers were present.
The summary further notes that Trump said he had “threw” Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago and that “people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting.”
In the same call, Trump reportedly described Ghislaine Maxwell as “Epstein’s operative” and told Reiter:
“She is evil and to focus on her.”
The FBI interview summary was compiled years later, in October 2019, after Epstein’s arrest on federal charges. Epstein was taken into custody by the FBI in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking.
He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell the following month while awaiting trial.
The Justice Department released the Reiter interview summary as part of a broader document disclosure related to Epstein’s criminal history and the government’s handling of his case.
Epstein had previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution under a non-prosecution agreement.
That deal resulted in Epstein serving 13 months in jail, much of it on work release, and has since been widely scrutinized.
Reiter’s account provides additional context about early reactions to the Epstein investigation within Palm Beach and highlights Trump’s contact with local law enforcement during the initial stages of the probe.
The document does not suggest Trump was implicated in any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
The release of the FBI summary comes amid continued public interest in Epstein-related records and renewed scrutiny of individuals who had contact with Epstein or Maxwell prior to Epstein’s arrest and death.
Maxwell was later convicted in federal court for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
The Department of Justice has stated that the document release is part of an effort to make public records associated with the Epstein case available, following years of criticism over secrecy surrounding earlier plea agreements and investigative decisions.
The FBI interview summary does not indicate whether Trump had further contact with Palm Beach authorities regarding Epstein after the 2006 phone call.
No additional statements from Trump were included in the document beyond Reiter’s recollection of the conversation.
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