Redacted Epstein file could disprove Trump’s claims about Epstein friendship

It's been claimed that a previously unseen section of the Epstein files may go against one of Donald Trump's defences about his friendship with the the convicted sex offender.

The latest batch of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein released to the world by the Department of Justice consisted of 3,000,000 documents, 180,000 images and 2,000 videos.

On 30 January, the unsealed trove of information linked a number of famous faces and celebrities to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial.

US President Donald Trump, 79, is mentioned hundreds of times in the latest batch - however, as we know, being named in the files does not, on its own, indicate wrongdoing.

The Republican leader has faced scrutiny over his previous friendship with Epstein, however has maintained that they fell out many years ago and has strongly denied any knowledge of his sex crimes.

The two high-profile men were part of a similar social circle and were pals for a number of years during the early 2000s, before Epstein's crimes were unearthed.

Donald Trump has appeared in the Epstein files a number of times, though this doesn't automatically equal wrongdoing (US Department of Justice)

However, Trump says that he and Epstein fell out in the early 2000s, two years before the criminal was first arrested.

In July last year, the White House said that the president kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club 'for being a creep'.

"The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep," White House communications director Steven Cheung said.

At the time, Trump also spoke about the matter himself and said that the financer poached some employees after he explicitly warned him not to do so.

He said at the time: "But for years, I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey Epstein. I wouldn't talk because he did something that was inappropriate. He hired help, and I said, 'don't ever do that again.'

It's known that Trump and Epstein were 'social acquaintances' in the 1990s (Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)

"He stole people that worked for me. I said, 'don't ever do that again.' He did it again. And I threw him out of the place, persona non grata. I threw him out, and that was it. I'm glad I did, if you want to know the truth."

As reported by PEOPLE Magazine, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin told reporters on Monday (9 February) that one redacted document he saw in the Epstein files appeared to suggest that Trump never asked Epstein to leave his Mar-a-Lago club like the president has claimed.

The 63-year-old politician was among a small group of House members who were given permission to view some original documents in person, before redactions were made.

He claimed he saw an email which was forward from Epstein to his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2009 recounting a conversation between lawyers for Epstein and Trump.

Jamie Raskin saw '30 or 40' of the files before redactions were made (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/Getty Images)

According to the publication, Raskin said: "Epstein's lawyers synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his club at Mar-a-Lago, but he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago, and he had never been asked to leave.

"That was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrutable reason."

He added: "I know it seems to be at odds with some things that President Trump has been saying recently about how he had kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club or asked him to leave, and this was at least one report that appears to contradict it."

Raskin also claimed that there were 'tons of completely unnecessary redactions in addition to the failure to redact the names of victim', which he found 'troubling'.

Tyla has contacted the White House for comment.