The latest bombshell report about Jeffrey Epstein calls into question all of President Donald Trump's denials about his relationship with the late sex offender, according to a legal expert.
The Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown reported Monday evening that Trump told then-Palm Beach police chief Michael Reiter in July 2006 that Epstein's activities were known to "everyone" in New York and Palm Beach, and he encouraged the investigator to "focus" on Ghislaine Maxwell, whom he described as "evil."
Former prosecutor Joey Jackson told to "CNN News Central" the significance of that report, which is based on an FBI interview with Reiter in October 2019 that was among millions of documents released late last month to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
"I make a lot of it, you know,and again, [the] president hasn't beencharged," Jackson said. "We'll see, you know,what happens, meaning prior,there's been no criminalactivity associated with himyet. But here's the issue: Iwould say that this is what wecall a prior inconsistentstatement. What we do incourtrooms every day throughoutthe country [is], you can saywhatever you want."
"[Trump has said] 'don't know Jeffrey Epstein, wasn't really afriend of mine, didn't know hisactivities, wasn't aware,'" Jackson added. "Butwhen you're confronted withsomething you specifically said,when you're confronted with adocument that controvertsexactly what you're saying, youhave some explaining to do."
The police chief's statement to the FBI in 2019, about two months after Epstein was found dead in his cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, undercut the 79-year-old president's disavowals of the late financier and his convicted co-conspirator Maxwell.
"If your narrative is 'I didn'tknow, I was unaware, didn'treally know the guy, didn'treally hang out with the guy,' and then there's this that comesup, if it is corroborated andsupported, which would suggestthat you knew a lot more, thenthat means that you've beenmisleading," Jackson said. "That means that youhaven't been fully truthfulwith the American people. Thatbecomes problematic."