Trump told then-Palm Beach police chief ‘thank goodness you’re stopping’ Epstein during 2006 investigation

In 2006, Trump told him, "Thank goodness you’re stopping him, everyone has known he’s been doing this," according to an FBI interview with the police chief in 2019 that was recently made public as part of the Epstein files.

President Donald Trump has said that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago after he discovered that Epstein was taking female employees at the club's spa. Michael Reiter is the name of the police chief who had played a role in the investigation into Epstein that started in 2005. Reiter, as well as his other law enforcement staff, was probing Epstein for recruiting girls as young as 14 to give him sexual massages.

“DONALD TRUMP told [Reiter] that he threw EPSTEIN out of his club. TRUMP called the [Palm Beach Police Department] to tell him ‘thank goodness you're stopping him, everyone has known he's been doing this,” the FBI report said of the conversation.

The call between Trump and Reiter took place in July 2006, which was the same time as the investigation into Epstein started leaking to the public, per ABC News.

“TRUMP told him people in New York knew EPSTEIN was disgusting. TRUMP said MAXWELL was EPSTEIN's operative, ‘she is evil and to focus on her," the FBI report added. “TRUMP told [Reiter] that he was around EPSTEIN once when teenagers were present and TRUMP ‘got the hell out of there.' TRUMP was one of the very first people to call when people found out that they were investigating EPSTEIN."

The revelation about the call comes as there has been heightened interest in the Epstein case during Trump's second term. The president has not been legally accused of crimes related to Epstein and the DOJ under Trump has taken steps to release nearly all documents related to the Epstein case with exceptions to protect the information of victims.