A former Palm Beach, Florida, police chief told the FBI that Donald Trump called him during the mid-2000s investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and said, “thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this,” according to an FBI account of a 2019 interview. The document was first reported by Miami Herald. Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has said he cut off contact with his former friend more than 20 years ago. Trump has also claimed he barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club after discovering Epstein was recruiting employees from the club’s spa, as per a report byABC news.

The former police chief, Michael Reiter, was a central figure in the first law enforcement probe of Epstein in Florida, which began in 2005. His name is redacted in the FBI document posted on the US Department of Justice website, but the details match Reiter’s publicly known role in the case.

Reiter’s detectives were investigating Epstein for allegedly recruiting girls as young as 14 to provide massages that turned sexual. The FBI report summarizes Reiter’s testimony given in October 2019, two months after Epstein’s death.

According to the report, “DONALD TRUMP told [Reiter] that he threw EPSTEIN out of his club.” It adds that Trump called the Palm Beach Police Department to say, “thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this.”

The report says the alleged call took place in July 2006, around the time details of the investigation became public.

The FBI summary further states: “TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting.” It adds that Trump said Ghislaine Maxwell was Epstein’s operative, calling her “evil” and urging investigators to focus on her. The report also says Trump told Reiter he left an encounter with Epstein when teenagers were present, saying he “got the hell out of there.”

The account of the alleged call had not been previously reported, according to the FBI document.

Reiter later publicly criticised local prosecutors in 2006 for taking the case to a grand jury rather than charging Epstein directly. He apologised to victims and coordinated with federal authorities, leading to a separate investigation that ended with Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement in 2008.

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