Jeffrey Epstein’s brother claims Donald Trump is a 'liar' and the pair were 'really good friends'
The brother of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein has branded US president Donald Trump "a liar".
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Mark Epstein, 71, said Mr Trump's attempt to distance himself from the convicted sex offender is the "mark of a desperate person".
There is no doubt that Mr Trump and Jeffrey Epstein knew each other. In recent months, the US president has downplayed his links with the disgraced financier, but Mark said the pair had a very close relationship.
“They were really good friends,” Mark said. “They partied together. Jeffrey was at his wedding. They used to fly on each other's planes.
“Once we flew up on Jeffrey’s plane from Florida back in 1999. The evidence is already there; how much more do you need?"
“Trump was in Jeffrey's office quite a lot back then. That's why I was very surprised when Donald said he was never in Jeffrey's office.
“I mean, that's just such a provable lie. There are so many witnesses that will place him in Jeffrey's office. He made a stupid mistake by saying he was never there.”
Pressure is mounting on the president, following reports that his name appears in US Justice Department files about Epstein.
Mr Trump had previously promised to release the files during campaigning for his second term in office, but is yet to do so, prompting frustration among some of his core supporters.
The Epstein files have consumed Mr Trump's time in office in recent months, triggering the White House to dismiss claims that his name appears in the documents, branding the report as “fake news”.
Mark said: "I understand a lot of people distance themselves from Jeffrey. He was charged with crimes that people don't want to be associated with. I understand that.
“But the lies, that's a little bit much, especially when they're so provable that they're lies, it becomes laughable.
“It's sort of like the mark of a desperate person.”
“Why is he [Trump] not releasing the files? What is he afraid of? What is he hiding? Why is he lying about being in Jeffrey's office? Why is he lying about being Jeffrey's friend or not being Jeffrey's friend?”
Mark continued: “There are many witnesses testifying that they were best of friends and many people witnessed that he was in Jeffrey's office many times in the 90s and the early 2000s.
“Now he's saying he was never in Jeffrey's office. That's laughable.”
Mark also called for a fresh investigation into the circumstances surrounding his older brother’s death.
Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019, aged 66 at the time, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
However, Mark, who was called to identify his brother’s body, believes he was murdered.
He said marks on the body were not consistent with US official reports that he killed himself.
He said: “I saw his body the next day. I was the one that had to identify his body. I'm the only next of kin he has. Our parents are gone. There are no other siblings. He wasn't married and he had no children.
“The two pathologists, who did the autopsy the day after his death, both concluded that it doesn't look like a suicide, it looks more like a homicide and that fact does not appear anywhere. It doesn't appear in the Justice Department report. Nobody is talking about it.
“They are trying to brush that under the carpet to try to claim it's a suicide. And when they claim it's a suicide early on, that basically stops any further investigating. Because if it's a suicide, there are two questions; how and why? I don't think he committed suicide so the “why” is not important here, because he didn't commit suicide. I believe he was killed to keep him quiet for information he knew.
“Why don't you ask Trump if he would open up a homicide investigation into Jeffrey's death? I think that's one of the questions for sure. If you were doing a full homicide investigation, you would see who has something to gain from Jeffrey's death.
“You would say, well, who do they work for? You know, they work for the US government, for the Department of Justice, and who runs that? So, you would sort of look up the chain of command. Who might they be protecting? I'll leave it up to you.”
Mark said the last conversation he had with his brother was on the night before flew home from Paris and was subsequently arrested on US soil.
Asked why it was important for his views to be made public, he said: “Well, a number of reasons. One; I don't want the people responsible to think that they just got away with it.
“Two; as an American citizen, I think my other fellow citizens should be concerned that an American citizen was killed in a jail under the protection of the federal government.
“He was in a federal prison and he was killed there. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anybody.”
So, what is the possibility of the US government re-opening the case into Epstein's death?
Diane Kiesel, retired New York Supreme Court Judge said Mark’s chances are slim.
She said: “This case is now six years old. It was thoroughly investigated at the time Epstein killed himself in the Summer of 2019.
“It is very unlikely that the Trump administration, which does not even want to release the files that he allegedly had, or that his Attorney General allegedly had on her desk, and it is very unlikely they are going to commence any kind of new investigation of this case.
Diane said Mark’s options when it comes to his next steps are now limited as the statute of limitation has passed.
“There are really very, very few options for him,” she said.
“First of all, in order for his brother [Mark] to file any kind of separate civil lawsuit against the government, he is barred by what we have in this country called the Federal Tort Claims Act, that prevents private citizens from suing the government unless they're able to do so within two years.
"First they have to file an administrative claim within two years, and then once that claim is acknowledged, they have six months to file a lawsuit. So, he's well out of the box for that.
“He could certainly perhaps petition his local member of Congress to try and put pressure on the Trump administration to re-open the investigation into Epstein's death, but I doubt that would get very far either.
“Now, he could certainly go to the press but other than those things, he really doesn't have a lot of hope.”
Vanessa Baffoe presents the Breakfast show on LBC News. Catch her show weekdays from 6am to 10am.