--- title: Trump Reportedly Told Police 20 Years Ago That 'Everyone’ Knew About Epstein description: ‘Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’ Trump is reported to have said canonical: https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-02-10T17:49:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:55:01.472Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Reportedly Knew About Epstein's Crimes 20 Years Ago og:description: ‘Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’ Trump is reported to have told police in 2006. og:url: https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0631dbdc669a6ca5/6998cf1f25f3eeb5006458f2/GettyImages-1233893134.jpg?branch=production&width=908&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 908 og:image:height: 511 og:image:alt: Thursday, October 30, 1997: Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump attend the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Modeling Agency. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Reportedly Knew About Epstein's Crimes 20 Years Ago twitter:description: ‘Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’ Trump is reported to have told police in 2006. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0631dbdc669a6ca5/6998cf1f25f3eeb5006458f2/GettyImages-1233893134.jpg?branch=production&width=908&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Reportedly Told Police 20 Years Ago That 'Everyone’ Knew About Epstein, Called Maxwell 'Evil' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=dd1989ab-b37b-467d-a476-83db933b252b&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Feb 10, 2026 5:49 PM UTC  The 50th anniversary for both the Ford Modeling Agency and Pantene hair care products. They celebrate together at 142 Mercer Street in Manhattan. Pictured are Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump The 50th anniversary for both the Ford Modeling Agency and Pantene hair care products. They celebrate together at 142 Mercer Street in Manhattan. Pictured are Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump Richard Corkery—NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Feb 10, 2026 5:49 PM UTC President Donald Trump has claimed for years that he knew nothing about [Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes](https://time.com/7340275/jeffrey-epstein-files-release/), but a former Palm Beach police chief claimed Trump told him 20 years ago that “everyone” knew about Epstein’s activities. The revelation came from a record of an October 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, which was included in the most recent release of so-called Epstein files held by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Reiter told the FBI that Trump called him in July 2006, when Epstein was first arrested on a state charge for soliciting prostitution, to tell him that Epstein’s crimes of abusing young girls were well known among socialites in Florida and New York. **Read More:**[_Inside Trump and Epstein’s Long, Complicated Relationship_](https://time.com/7333365/trump-epstein-relationship-timeline/) “Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Reiter said Trump told him. Although Reiter stepped down as chief of police in 2009, he was in charge of the precinct as investigations into Epstein’s sex crimes occurred at the local level in the 2000s. He recounted the conversation in an interview with the FBI in 2019\. The Miami Herald was the first to report the [FBI 302 document,](https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA01249718.pdf) which summarizes the interview. Reiter also revealed that Trump told him in 2006 that Ghislaine Maxwell, who has since been convicted for her role as an accomplice to Epstein’s crimes, was Epstein’s “operative” and was “evil.” “Trump told him people in New York knew Epstein was disgusting. Trump said Maxwell was Epstein’s operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her,’” the report of Reiter’s statement continues. The summary also claims that during the 2006 call, “Trump told \[Reiter\] that he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and Trump got the hell out of there,” and that he “threw Epstein out of his club.” Reiter’s name was redacted from the FBI file, but the document identifies the interview subject as the person who had been Palm Beach’s police chief at the time of the 2006 investigation into Epstein—who was Reiter. ## **‘No idea. I had no idea’** In the years after that call, Trump repeatedly said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sex crimes. He has also claimed that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago after he found out the financier was poaching spa club employees. In July 2019, when asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he had any suspicions about Epstein “molesting … underaged women”, Trump responded: “No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven’t spoken to him in many, many years.” Trump has also been less forthcoming about his feelings toward Maxwell in the years since. When asked in October 2020 how he felt about her when she was facing federal charges of helping Epstein recruit, groom and sexually abuse young girls, Trump said, “I just wish her well, frankly.” Despite trying to distance himself from the scandal as it blew up again in 2025, Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out pardoning Maxwell, telling reporters in Oct. of last year that “he’d have to take a look at it.” In July last year, Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted an on-record interview with Maxwell for two days about the Epstein case while she was in prison. Soon after, Maxwell was moved to a minimum security facility usually reserved for people who have been convicted of financial crimes. The move [sparked criticism among Democrats](https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-08-12.raskin-nadler-lofgren-et-al-to-bondi-doj-marshall-bop-re-maxwell.pdf) who argued in an August letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi that moving Maxwell raised “substantial concerns that the Administration may now be attempting to tamper with a crucial witness.” Tens of thousands of Epstein’s emails and files relating to the various law enforcement investigations into the disgraced financier were released by the DOJ throughout 2025 and early 2026\. The files have caused reverberations in the [U.S. and around the world](https://time.com/7372763/epstein-files-united-kingdom-peter-mandelson-prince-andrew-starmer/). In responseto emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in November, the White House said, “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees.” In one of the leaked emails, Epstein claimed that Trump “knew about the girls.” When contacted for comment, the White House referred _TIME_ to the DOJ. A DOJ official told TIME that they were not aware of any corroborating evidence that the President contacted law enforcement 20 years ago. The unearthed report comes as Maxwell pleaded the Fifth in a deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, but soon after claimed she would clear Trump’s name if granted [clemency](https://time.com/7375277/ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-trump-clinton-innocent-congress-testimony-clemency-pardon/) from the President. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/"},"headline":"Trump Reportedly Told Police 20 Years Ago That 'Everyone’ Knew About Epstein, Called Maxwell 'Evil'","datePublished":"2026-02-10T17:49:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:55:01.472Z","description":"‘Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,’ Trump is reported to have told police in 2006.","url":"https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/","keywords":["Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0631dbdc669a6ca5/6998cf1f25f3eeb5006458f2/GettyImages-1233893134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rebecca Schneid","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0631dbdc669a6ca5/6998cf1f25f3eeb5006458f2/GettyImages-1233893134.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Thursday, October 30, 1997: Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump attend the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Modeling Agency.","caption":"Thursday, October 30, 1997: Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump attend the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Modeling Agency.","creditText":"Richard Corkery—NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7377403/trump-epstein-maxwell-files/","name":"Trump Reportedly Told Police 20 Years Ago That 'Everyone’ Knew About Epstein, Called Maxwell 'Evil'"}}]}] ```