The Free Press has published details from what it described as the most comprehensive public release yet of Jeffrey Epstein’s private recordings — a trove of roughly 2,000 previously unreleased videos. Meanwhile, newly released files also reveal police testimony that President Donald Trump called law enforcement to report on Epstein 20 years ago.
The newly revealed videos contain footage of young women dancing in Epstein’s office, scenes from his private Caribbean islands, large volumes of redacted pornography, and a nearly two-hour interview of Epstein conducted by Steve Bannon. Separate freshly unsealed FBI documents show that then-businessman Donald Trump called Epstein “disgusting” and urged authorities to pursue Ghislaine Maxwell during a 2006 phone call to Palm Beach police, according to an FBI interview summary.
Trump’s phone call
When Jeffrey Epstein first came under criminal scrutiny in 2006, Trump placed a call about him to local law enforcement, according to Breibart. An FBI summary of a 2019 interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter recounts that Trump reportedly told Reiter, “thank goodness you’re stopping [Epstein], everyone has known he’s been doing this.” Trump also suggested that authorities “focus on” Epstein’s close associate Ghislaine Maxwell, whom Trump described as “evil.” The police chief said Trump told him at the time that he had barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club after noticing inappropriate behavior. The cop said Trump claimed he “got the hell out of there” when he saw Epstein with teenagers, according to the document.
The account, contained in a Justice Department release of court records tied to the Epstein investigation, says Trump was among the first to contact police once word of the probe reached the public. The report identified the interview subject as the Palm Beach police chief at the time — widely understood to be Reiter — although his name is redacted in the document. Trump has denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has not been accused of wrongdoing by Epstein’s victims. A Justice Department official has said there is no independent corroboration of the phone call beyond the chief’s account.
Newly released videos
The videos were buried inside a massive Jan. 30 release of Epstein-related materials fro the DOJ, totaling hundreds of gigabytes. While the files are technically public, they are not searchable and are difficult to access without downloading entire data sets.
>> DOJ releases millions more pages of Epstein-related records <<
After reviewing approximately 14 hours of footage contained in what the DOJ labeled “Data Set 10,” The Free Press reported that the material includes dozens of clips apparently filmed from behind a desk inside Epstein’s office, where young women — their faces largely obscured by redactions — dance to pop music as Epstein gives instructions from behind the camera.
In several of those office recordings, a DNA paternity test document is visible on the corner of Epstein’s desk, alongside items such as medication bottles and Russian nesting dolls, according to the outlet’s review.
Other clips show Epstein himself on camera, laughing and interacting with young women. In one video, he appears to lift a young woman’s shirt as she protests. Then she falls silent. In others, he instructs women to smile or pose in certain ways.
The footage also includes videos shot on Epstein’s private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands — Little Saint James and Great Saint James — including drone reels and VHS recordings of beaches, helicopters, and island property.
Among the most disturbing material described are heavily redacted clips involving children, including toddlers and what appear to be preteen girls. Because of the DOJ’s stated policy of redacting information to protect victims, faces and audio are frequently missing from the footage, making context difficult to determine. The DOJ has said that nearly all women appearing in the files — except known accomplices such as Ghislaine Maxwell — were treated as potential victims.
The archive also contains large volumes of downloaded pornography, much of it muted and covered by black redaction boxes, with only website watermarks visible in some frames. Other saved material appears to include television clips, comedy segments, and miscellaneous pop culture fragments.
One of the most notable recordings is a nearly two-hour interview conducted in 2019 between Epstein and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. In the conversation, Bannon challenges Epstein about whether institutions should accept money from a “Tier 1 sexual predator.” Epstein defends his financial gifts by arguing that recipients of charitable aid would not care about the source of the funds. At one point, the two men engage in an unusual exchange about whether Epstein viewed himself as “the devil.”
Epstein, who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor, was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls. He died in jail that August while awaiting trial. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence.