Dem senator sends MS NOW hosts scrambling with mention of Trump check to Epstein
Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels, Jackie Alemany and Chris Coons (MS NOW screenshot)
December 20, 2025
Sen Chris Coons (D-DE) sent the hosts and producers of MS NOW’s “The Weekend” scrambling after he pointed to a photo of a check from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein in payment for a woman that was included in the just-released Epstein files.
Brought on to talk about the Department of Justice’s foot-dragging of the files release in violation of a congressional order, Coons said just before he came on for his interview that he saw mention online about a $22,00 check from the president to sex trafficker Epstein.
“There were some new photos released of different powerful men in and around the company of Epstein,” the senator told the hosts. “One thing that I hadn't seen before was the sort of big fake check of $22,000 to Epstein from Trump, with some reference to having sold a girl. I do think there's more here, and it's worth more investigations to get to the bottom of this and put this to rest and respect the victims.”
“Senator, I'm sorry. That last claim that you just made. Would you mind expanding on that a little bit?” a concerned Jackie Alemany asked as co-host Eugene Daniels appeared shocked.
“I literally just saw this in an online search as I was coming to this interview about what's new in the Epstein files,” Coons admitted. “My impression from a brief review of several articles was that there was a photo of a fake check, the sort that's given at big events at what I think was Epstein's 50th birthday party by President Trump. I probably should be better grounded in citing that, but it was one of the things I don't remember having heard about before.”
“Got it. Okay,” the MS NOW host responded. “And our producer is saying there is a check in the files. We just we are not able to speculate further about the context of that check.”
The photo of the check in question appears to be one released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee back in September that set off a wave of outrage at the time.