NEW YORK — Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein called Donald Trump his “closest friend” in the latest recordings released by author Michael Wolff.
Wolff began releasing tapes on Thursday via The Daily Beast from interviews recorded as he wrote his book, “Fire and Fury.” The book covered the first months of the Trump administration.
As part of that research, he spoke several times to Trump’s longtime friend, Jeffrey Epstein, who at the time only had a record of Florida state charges of one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. Epstein served 18 months for those charges in a work-release program, leaving jail during the day and returning at night.
Wolff interviewed Epstein in 2016, years before the financier’s controversial 2019 suicide in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
On the latest Wolff tape, released Saturday evening, Epstein said Trump was his “closest friend for 10 years.” Trump, Epstein claimed, was both “charming” and “a horrible human being.
“He is charming; he is able to convince people,” Epstein said on tape. “It’s very much like Clinton. Both Bill and Donald have the ability to go over to a fat, ugly woman, say, ‘You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’ So, he tells everybody what they want to hear. And that is charming.”
Wolff claimed Epstein spoke to him because he was appalled that the Trump he knew so well had risen to power.
Wolff claimed Epstein spoke to him because he was appalled that the Trump he knew so well had risen to power.
“He does nasty things to his best friends, his best friends’ wives,” Epstein said on tape. “Anyone who he first tries to gain their trust, and then uses it to do bad things.”
Wolff also asked about Trump’s intelligence.
“With respect to real estate deals, he’s brilliant. He’s a salesman. He knows real estate really well,” Epstein said. “Anything else but that, he knows nothing. No history, no strategy…he can’t read a spreadsheet, which is funny.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Trump’s camp for comment on the tapes. They labeled the tapes as “false smears” and “election interference.”
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