Jeffrey Epstein said he had “dirt” on President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton serious enough that it could have canceled the 2016 presidential election if revealed publicly, according to his brother.
Mark Epstein said he was never told what the “dirt” was and does not have any evidence linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal sexual abuse and trafficking of young girls.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Hillary Clinton’s office out of office hours for comment.
Why It Matters
Trump has experienced a widespread backlash, including from parts of his MAGA base, since a memo by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI in July stated there was no evidence of a blackmail plot by Jeffrey Epstein and there would be no new charges against the financier’s associates.
Some commentators have suggested they were led to believe there would be major new revelations following public statements from Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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What to Know
Mark Epstein told BBC Newsnight: “In the 2016 election, we were talking about the election and Jeffrey told me that if he said what he knew about the candidates, they would have to cancel the election.”
Trump and Hillary Clinton were the candidates for the Republicans and the Democrats, respectively, in 2016. Trump and Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, have always denied knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal sexual abuse of minors.
Newsweek is unable to verify Mark Epstein’s claims.
Mark Epstein gave an interview to the BBC’s Newsnight in the U.K. on Friday, July 25, in which he argued the New York financier did not commit suicide in his jail cell in 2019, contrary to the official decision by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Barbara Sampson.
He was then asked whether he thought Jeffrey Epstein “knew things about powerful people,” by interviewer Matt Chorley.
“Absolutely,” he replied, “I believe so, yes. Jeffrey mentioned he had dirt on people. He didn’t tell me what he knew. But he led me to believe that he had dirt on people.
“In the 2016 election, we were talking about the election and Jeffrey told me that if he said what he knew about the candidates, they would have to cancel the election.
“That’s a quote, that’s exactly what he told me. He said, ‘If I said what I knew about the candidates, they’d have to cancel the election.’ He didn’t tell me what he knew. But that’s what he said.”
Chorley suggested he did not have “any evidence to place Donald Trump in the category of offense that your brother was accused of.”
“I have no evidence of that, no,” Mark Epstein replied. “I can neither confirm nor deny that. I wasn’t there, I didn’t hang out with them in those days.”
However, he said Trump and Jeffrey Epstein “were very close, they used to fly in each other’s planes.
“Donald Trump was in Jeffrey’s office many times and there’s witnesses that could point that, could testify that they saw Trump in Jeffrey’s office. So, I don’t know why he said he never was in Jeffrey’s office. That was a just blatant lie. I couldn’t believe he actually said that because it’s so provable that he was there.”
The White House has denied that Trump visited Jeffrey Epstein in his office, CNN reported.
Donald Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein Denials
Quoted by PBS, White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement last week: “The fact is that the president kicked him [Jeffrey Epstein] out of his club for being a creep.”
And in Scotland on Monday, Trump told journalists he did not visit Epstein’s private island, Little St. James: “I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island.
“In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn’t want to go to his island.”
In 2019, after Jeffrey Epstein was arrested by the FBI, Trump said he “knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.”
Quoted by Sky News, he added: “I had a falling out with him. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
“The reason doesn’t make any difference, frankly,” he said.
In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Trump said: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with.
“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
The DOJ and FBI Memo
The DOJ and FBI memo released in July referenced “300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence” gathered during the Trump administration’s review of the Epstein case.
“Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial,” the memo read, “as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.
“Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography. This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’
“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.
“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Jeffrey Epstein’s Death in Jail
Jeffrey Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide, but there have long been questions over whether there could have been foul play.
In July, the DOJ released a tape recording of the camera in his prison cell leading to allegations there were some missing minutes, three according to an examination of the metadata by Wired.
Mark Epstein said that on first learning his brother was dead, he assumed it was a suicide, but began to have doubts after two pathologists told him it could have been murder.
“The thing I don’t want to see,” he told Newsnight, “I don’t want to see people just writing this off as a suicide, which it wasn’t.”
He said the pathologists “both came out of the autopsy saying they couldn’t call it a suicide because it looked too much like a homicide. And that doesn’t appear in any of the records or nobody talks about that—that the two pathologists, two highly qualified pathologists, say this looks more like a murder.”
“It was never investigated as a potential homicide because if it was there was a lot of things they should have done that were not done,” he added.
