Documents made public by the Justice Department in recent weeks have revived contentious questions about public figures' past connections to Jeffrey Epstein and continued to shape the political conversation in Washington. Among the newly available material is a summary of a 2019 FBI interview with Michael Reiter, the former police chief in Palm Beach, Florida, that recounts a phone call Reiter says he received from Donald Trump in July 2006.
According to the FBI summary, Reiter told investigators that Trump called to thank him for taking action against Epstein during the time when Epstein's first sex crime charges became public. The document attributes to Trump the remark: "Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this." The summary also reports that Trump told Reiter people in New York were aware of Epstein’s conduct and described Ghislaine Maxwell as "evil."
The FBI summary further records a statement attributed to Trump that he had once been in Epstein's presence when teenagers were also present and that he "got the hell out of there." Reiter, who retired from the Palm Beach police department in 2009, later confirmed the details of the 2019 interview to the Miami Herald.
The Justice Department responded to inquiries about the reported conversation with caution. A department spokesperson said, "We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago." The statement does not dispute the existence of the FBI interview summary, but it notes a lack of corroboration for the specific contact described.
Trump has acknowledged a past friendship with Epstein but has maintained they later had a falling out prior to Epstein's first arrest. The president has repeatedly said he was unaware of Epstein's crimes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump has been "honest and transparent" about ending his association with Epstein, adding: "It was a phone call that may or may not have happened in 2006. I don’t know the answer to that question."
On Capitol Hill the same day, Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary, faced intensive questioning from lawmakers seeking to clarify his relationship with Epstein. Lutnick testified at a Senate hearing where he sought to downplay his connection to the financier, saying he "barely had anything to do with" Epstein.
The Justice Department's files include emails that suggest Lutnick visited Epstein's private Caribbean island for lunch in 2012. That visit, if accurately reflected by the emails, would have occurred seven years after Lutnick previously said he had cut off ties with Epstein. The disclosures prompted bipartisan calls for Lutnick to consider resignation.
During his testimony, Lutnick maintained that he had met Epstein only three times over a 14-year period and described the island lunch as an incidental meeting while he and his family were on a boat nearby. He said, "I know and my wife knows that I have done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard."
The emails in the released documents also appear to contradict an earlier public account Lutnick offered about why he severed contact with Epstein. Lutnick had said he decided in 2005 never to see Epstein again after an episode in which Epstein, who lived nearby at the time, showed Lutnick a massage table in his townhouse and made a sexually suggestive comment. Republican Representative Tom Massie told CNN that Lutnick should "make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign." At the White House, Leavitt said that Trump "fully supports" Lutnick.
The flow of documents has had ramifications beyond individual reputations. The Justice Department's release of millions of Epstein-related files - a response to a bipartisan bill - has added new details to the public record about Epstein's ties to figures across politics, finance, business and academia. Those disclosures have produced political and diplomatic consequences, with reports that the revelations have created crises abroad as well as domestic scrutiny.
In response to the renewed attention and the broader public concerns the files have raised, congressional Democrats introduced legislation designed to expand civil options for adult survivors of sex trafficking. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez announced the proposal, called "Virginia's Law," alongside survivors and family members of Virginia Giuffre. The measure would make it easier for adult victims to sue their abusers, even many years after the alleged abuse.
The bill is named for Giuffre, one of Epstein's most prominent accusers, who died by suicide last year. Giuffre's death, along with Epstein's own death in 2019 while he was awaiting trial in New York, remains part of the broader public conversation. Epstein's death was officially ruled a suicide and has prompted years of speculation and conspiracy theories, some of which were amplified publicly by Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign, according to the documents.
Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted and is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in facilitating Epstein's abuse of teenage girls, recently sat for a deposition before the U.S. House oversight committee but declined to answer questions.
The newly released files and the accounts they contain have kept Epstein-related questions in the headlines and undercut efforts by senior officials to draw clear lines between their past associations and any knowledge of criminal conduct. For now, key elements remain matters of dispute - notably whether Trump in fact placed the 2006 call described in the FBI summary and how to reconcile Lutnick's public statements with the emails in the Justice Department file. The documents have spurred legislative proposals, public calls for accountability, and ongoing political scrutiny that could affect reputations and careers.