In 2006, Palm Beach police investigated the disgraced financier for allegedly sexually exploiting underage girls. The case was later handed over to federal prosecutors, who in 2008 made a controversial plea deal with Epstein that included a non-prosecution agreement that protected him from more serious charges.
In a statement to the BBC, a justice department official said: “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president met with law enforcement 20 years ago.”
At a White House briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the reported call and said it “may or may not have happened in 2006. I don’t know the answer.”
“What President Trump always says is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein is a creep,” he said. “And that remains true of this call. If it happened it proved exactly what President Trump said from the beginning.”
The BBC has also contacted Reiter for comment.
Trump and Epstein socialized and appeared in photos together in the 1990s, but the president and the White House have repeatedly said he was in the dark about Epstein’s crimes before he cut off contact with him around 2004 — years before he was first arrested.
Trump said their falling out happened after he learned that Epstein tried to “steal” his employees from Mar-a-Lago.
“When I heard about it, I told him, we don’t want you to take away our people,” Trump said in July. “He was fine and then shortly after he did it again and I said ‘get out of here’.”
Reports of the alleged call came after Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls who were sexually abused by Epstein – testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee on Monday.
During the closed-door deposition, Maxwell declined to answer questions and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, invoking his right to remain silent, Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said.
Maxwell’s lawyer said he was “willing to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump”.
Trump said he was not thinking about granting a pardon to Maxwell.