Timeline of The Epstein Scandal And The Trump/Epstein Relationship

I want to stick to Trump policies, laws, orders, etc...on this page, and not descend into a gossip rag. But because President Trump's administration has made gossip ragging their policy, I want to address the current scandal. 

Since 2019, when Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of human trafficking and subsequently committed suicide, the people of America have been calling for the files to be released. Obviously, we want the names and pictures of abused girls removed. But we want names.

An observation I've made between the right and left is that Conservatives are convinced that the only people involved in the human sex trafficking scheme are people on the left. Whereas, the Liberals I've observed are convinced that the scheme will reveal the names of prominent leaders and businesspeople and religious figures from every stripe of politics, religion and business.

As this continues to play out, I will add to this timeline. There is always more I can gather. Being just one person: a father, husband, pet-owner, gardener, etc...I keep my time for this little blog limited. If you see something I missed, please hit the Contact link and provide a link and a summary of what I've missed. I'll check it out.

In this timeline, I want to demonstrate whether or not Trump and Epstein were friends, when they were friends, and how involved they were in each other's lives. Also, I want to show what Epstein was doing during those times. I'll follow the timeline on through the current date and I'll add to it as things go along.

1992

Donald Trump threw a wild party that involved NFL chearleaders at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Video footage taken at the party shows him socializing with an invited guest: Jeffrey Epstein.

1993

This year, Trump hosted a "Calendar Girl Competition" for minors. He only invited one guest: Jeffrey Epstein. The other guest was the event sponsor and his 22 year old girlfriend. The girlfriend later reported that Trump held her down in a bathroom, and fondled and kissed her.

December 20, 1993

Epstein is invited to, and attends, Trump's wedding to Marla Maples.

1993-1997

Mr. Trump's name appears on Epstein flight logs 7 times during this period. He flew on Epstein's jet four times in 1993, once in '94, again in '95, and lastly in 1997. This is according to flight logs released during the Ghislaine Maxwell trial. All flights occurred in the easter United States between Florida and New York.

Trump reports he never flew with Epstein to the private island where Epstein kept a harem of underage girls. However, I feel it's important to note that most of the allged abuse that has been made public did not occur on that island, but in the continental United States. Former President Bill Clinton also flew in Epstein's private jet and was very likely involved in illegal activities with Epstein.

Trump, Clinton, and other rich and powerful people are included in Epstein's so-called "little black book" of special guests. Among those guests is RFK Jr.  and US Senator George Mitchell.

1995

Epstein called Maria Farmer to his office in New York. Trump arrived and hovered over her, staring at her legs until Epstein told him, "She's not here for you."

1996

Trump assaulted E Jean Carroll in a dressing room at a department store in 1996. Trump denied ever touching her, and said she wasn't his type. During his deposition for this assault decades later, Trump was shown a picture of Carroll and mistakenly identified her as his then wife, Marla Maples. In short, E Jean Carroll was exactly Trump's type.  

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1997

Trump and Epstein went as a pair of buddies to the Victoria's Secret "Angels" party in New York. 

1999

Trump and Epstein were seen laughing and chatting at a Victoria's Secret fashion show.

At a Mar-a-lago charity event, Trump, Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Prince Andrew were all seen socializing together.

2000

Virginia Giuffre reports she was recruited into Epsteins employment by Ghislaine Maxwell while she worked at Trump's estate at Mar-a-lago. She was then sex trafficked and reported being "passed around like a platter of fruit" as a teenager to rich predators. She was sixteen at the time.

She reports her recruitment was as follows: Maxwell found her one day reading a massage therapy manual, and invited her to become Epstein's travelling masseuse. She agreed, and then was groomed and forced to perform sexual favors for rich men. Men of note were Prince Andrew of Britain. I will write a little more about Giuffre in upcoming years, including her suicide in 2025.

2001

Sex-trafficking victim Johanna Sjoberg describes meeting Prince Andrew at Epstein's New York home, and in court documents she described how Prince Andrew fondled her breast. Sjoberg, then 20, was recruited by maxwell to be an executive assistant to Epstein, and was manipulated to perform sexual favors. 

2002

Trump tells New York Magazine, "“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.”

2003

Donald Trump's contribution to a book of birthday letters included a sketch of a naked woman. Trump made a sylized signature in the woman's crotch, and wrote a short script in which a fictional version of Trump and Epstein discuss a secret that only the two of them share.

2004

The two men bid on the same Palm Beach mansion. The rivalry became a bitter power struggle and in the end, Trump outbid Epstein. This appears to be the end of their friendship.

This same year, Epstein hit on the teenage daughter of wealthy Mar-a-lago club members, which also angered Trump.

Soon after Epstein purchased the property, there were reports of young women going in and out of the house.

March 2005

The family of a 14-year-old girl reported she was molested at Epstein's Palm Beach mansion. Multiple other underage girls later told police they were hired to give sexual massages in the mansion.

May 2006

Epstein and two others were charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor. State Attorny Barry Krishner sends the case to a grand jury. This was an odd step for such a case, and was likely taken because of Epstein's wealth.

June 2006

The grand jury only heard from one accuser and only about a single count of solicitation of prostitution. They did not hear the other victims and did not consider the other allegations at all. The jury indicted Epstein on only one count of solicitation of prostitution. 

July 2006

Leader of Palm Beach Police strongly criticized State Attorney Krischer for the special treatment Epstein got. The FBI opens its own investiation into the reports from multiple accusers in Florida, New York and other places in the United States.

2007

Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein, but his lawyers work with U.S. attorney Alex Acosta for a year about getting a plea bargain. This plea bargain allowed Epstein to avoid Federal prosecution altogether. His attorneys smeared the victims and argued they were unreliable witnesses. In the end, Alex Acosta (who would later become President Trump's Labor Secretary) made a secret plea deal in which Epstein pled guilty to two felony prostitution charges. The more serious charges involving the counts of sexual abuse of minors were dropped entirely. 

June 2008

Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution, including one count of soliciting a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. He was also sentenced to a year of communnity service and was required to register as a sex offender. 

He served most of his sentence on work release and was given a private wing of the County jail for his living quarters. He was given a private security detail, and was allowed to leave jail six days a week.

The Miami Herald obtained records from the negotiations and found that Alex Acosta consistently conceded to Epstein's demands. They found that the way it was handled was done "so that no one would know the full scop of Epstein's crimes."

July 2009

Epstein was released this year after serving only 13 months of his sentence. He celebrated his release with multiple people, including Prince Andrew of Britain. 

For the next 10 years, his victims fight to have his Federal non-prosecution voided. One victim, Virginia Guiffre, described sexual encounters with high-profile individuals starting when she was 17, including royalty, politicians, businessment, and others, including Prince Andrew. 

2010

During a deposition, Epstein reported he socialized with Trump.  When asked whether Trump was ever present at events where young girls were present, Epstein declined to answer.

2011

It is revealed that Epstein never did the check-ins required by law for sex offenders.

2012

Epstein establishes a foundation and donates millions of dollars to scientific endeavors and sponsors cancer research, in a push to improve his public image.

2015

Virginia Roberts (age 35 in 2015), reported that 20 years earlier she was pressured to have sex with Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz. She said she was sex trafficked by Epstein from the time she was 15. Roberts and other women file lawsuits alleging that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were involved in international sex trafficking. 

This year, Trump's name appeared circled in Epstein's little black book of contacts. The book contained over 1500 contacts, with 38 contacts circled, including Prince Andrew and Ehud Barak as well as other rich and powerful men. Prince Andrew is mentioned elsewhere on this list. Ehud Barak has also been under suspicion of being in Epstein's pedophile circle, and flew on Epstein's private planes many times, like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.

2016

Most of the accusers file claims as Jane Doe for fear of their lives. In 2016 a woman filed a suit in Manhattan claiming that Donald Trump raped her in 1994 when she was 13 years old, at Epsteins New York home.

2017

President Trump nominates Alex Acosta as US Secretary of Labor. He is questionined about his involvement in the Epstein case years earlier, but nonetheless is confirmed by the Senate.

2018

The Miami Herald reported extensively on Eptsein's long history of alleged crimes. 

November 2018

The Miami Herald reports extensively on Alex Acosta's involvement in the Epstein plea deal from years earlier. 

July 2019

Epstein was arrested on Federal sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors in New York concluded they were not bound by the plea deal arranged by Alex Acosta. 

Acost resigns as labor secretary. 

August 10, 2019

Guards found Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City from apparent suicide. 

July 2020

Federal prosecutors in New York charge Ghislain Maxwell with sex crimes. They alleged that she recruited underage girls to be sexually abused. She also allegedly participated in the abuse.

December 2021

A jury convicted Maxwell on multiple charges including sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity.

June 2022

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in Federal prison. She was only tried on 6 charges and was found guilty of 5. 

Maxwell and Epstein targeted troubled young women from single-mother homes. This is a common tactic among groomers, because disadvantaged and troubled young people are easy to discredit and more susceptible to threats, intimidation, manipulation, etc...

December 2023

A federal judge orders the unsealing of numerous documents. These documents would allegedly give the names of dozens of associates of Epstein. 

January 2024

The first batch of documents were unsealed on January 3 and more were revealed in the days that followed. The release of court records raised more questions about the pedophile, and answered few. 

Twelve accusers Epstein accusers sued the FBI on grounds that the agency failed to protect them. They filed their names as Jane Doe for fear of retribution. They alleged that while they were being abused, the FBI failed to follow its own regulations and did not follow up on credible information they received that might have saved them.

February 2024

Florida Governor Ron Desantis, on February 29, signed a bill that would make more of the 2006 grand jury investigation public, with a judge allowed to redact information, and with a few other restrictions. 

March 2024

Maxwell's appeal goes to the appeals court in New York, and oral arguments are heard on March 12. Her attorneys argue that she did not receive a fair trial in 2021. 

July 2024

On the basis of the law signed in February 2024, a Florida judge released transcripts of the 2006 grand jury testimony in which Epstein was accused of assaulting numerous teenagers at his mansion in Palm Beach. This reveals that the Palm Beach County prosecutor described the children as prostitutes, drug addicts and liars. One of Epstein's housekeepers reported the number of girls was in the "hundreds." Some of the girls were interviewed as well.

2024

During his campaign, Mr. Trump expressed mixed messages when asked if he would release files related to the Epstein case. He told Fox News, "I guess I would." Then he paused and said, "I think less so because you don't want to affect people's life if it's phony stuff in there, because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would."

A major buzz of the MAGA movement during the campaign revolved around releasing the Epstein files, whether or not Trump promised to do so. His followers believed he had promised them he would.

February 2025

Attorney General Pam Bondi gathered a group of conservative social media influencers together in DC and gave them each a folder titled "The Epstein Files: Phase I." These only contained known information. Republican representative Anna Paulina Luna, of Florida, criticized the administration. Her task force was not given the folders. 

April 2025

Virginia Giuffre committed suicide. She had accused Epstein of sexually trafficking her to Prince Andrew and other powerful men when she was a teenager. She was 41 years old when she passed away.  She had also accused Hyatt Hotel CEO Thomas Pritzker, AI guru Marvin Minsky, and former New Mexico Bill Richardson. 

May 2025

Attorney General Pam Bondi tells President Trump that his name is prominent in the Epstein files along with the names of at least a hundred other powerful and wealthy men.

July 7, 2025

The Department of Justice and the FBI released a memo stating there was no Epstein client list and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed anyone. The DOJ declared that no further files would be released. 

This is a red herring, because only simpletons believe Epstein kept a list of people to blackmail, or a list of pedophiles, etc...

July 8, 2025

Bondi changes her rhetoric a little, saying that when she told the world she had a "client list" on her desk, she was actually talking about the Epstein files. But that's stupid because only simple-minded people (as I said in July 7) believed Epstein kept some kind of written list. 

Trump supporters lost their minds on social media, and President Trump came under attack by the people who strongly believed he would take down all the pedophiles Epstein facilitated.

July 2025

The DOJ petitioned the Supreme Court to reject Maxwell's appeal.

July 17, 2025

The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdock, who also owns other conservative outlets, such as Fox News, published the story about the 2003 birthday card that Trump made for Epstein, which was a sketch of a nude woman and a fictional conversation in which Trump and Epstein share a "secret" that nobody knew about.

This sent President Trump into a frenzy and he derided the journal and Murdock, and immediately filed a lawsuit for defamation. Among other things, he confirmed that Epstein was a "creep," which sent the public and news organizations on a quest to find just how involved Trump and Epstein were as friends during the years Eptstein was in full "human trafficking" mode.

Trump spent the next week deflecting, releasing other formerly classified files, and doing everything he could to get his followers back in line. 

July 22, 2025

The house was poised to vote on releasing the Epstein files, with bipartisan support from most Democrats, and many Republicans. However, House Majority Leader, to block the vote, ended the session and called for vacation to begin early.

Meanwhile, President Trump continued to deflect, calling for former President Obama to be tried for treason. In the last week, Trump tried to blame Democrat administrations for cooking up the Epstein story, calling it a hoax. Yet, it is clear in the timeline that the Epstein files were compiled under Republican administrations, including Trump's first administration. These attempts to deflect were actually working. My observations on Truth Social showed that most MAGA followers were falling in line by this date. But there are still millions who are not falling in line—at least not yet—and who are still calling for a release of the files and follow-through by the Department of Justice.

July 25, 2025

The Justice Department wrapped up over a day of interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell. However, they still refused to release the Epstein files. The interviews were conducted by Deputy Attorney General Tood Blanche, who was Donald Trump's personal attorney in 2024 during a Trump's criminal trial. 

On the day I am writing this, I suspect they will declare that they interviewed Maxwell and there is no client list, or some such. I suspect I will be proven right, or they'll do something way dumber than my guess, and I'll be wrong only because they did something stupider than I imagined.

Also, on this day as Trump answered questions from the press, he refused to answer the question about whether he was going to pardon Maxwell. He signaled this when he declared the entire Epstein investigation a hoax and fake news, implying that there was never any pedophilia or human trafficking, and also implying that Maxwell and Epstein were innocent.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/jeffrey-epstein-scandal-crime-timeline/#:~:text=Judge%20orders%20Jeffrey%20Epstein%20document,unsealed%20in%20the%20following%20days.

https://fairobserver.com/timeline/the-timeline-of-jeffrey-epstein/

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/timeline-trump-epstein.html

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article256740662.html

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/virginia-giuffre-plaintiff-in-epstein-and-prince-andrew-sex-trafficking-case-dies-at-41

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/12-epstein-victims-sue-the-fbi/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67861498

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/18/how-well-did-trump-and-epstein-really-know-each-other-a-timeline#:~:text=know%20each%20other?-,A%20timeline,(WSG)%20reported%20on%20Thursday.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-reacts-jeffrey-epstein-wedding-photo-cnn-2102677

https://apnews.com/article/bondi-trump-epstein-justice-department-7dee80b59dfd7751404b626e2b0648dd

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/22/house-recess-jeffrey-epstein-files

https://www.wionews.com/world/donald-trump-threw-a-calendar-girl-competition-party-for-young-models-at-mar-a-lago-jeffrey-epstein-was-the-only-male-guest-says-event-planner-1753159885854

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/07/24/heres-every-known-link-between-trump-and-epstein-resurfaced-footage-shows-epstein-talking-about-socializing-with-trump/