The topic line reads “Trump.”
The date is Oct. 14, 2009.
The e-mail is from prison protection legal professional Jack Goldberger to his consumer, Jeffrey Epstein — which Epstein in flip forwarded to his affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Spoke to Alan Garten, Trump’s legal professional [redaction],” Goldberger wrote. “Garten organized a 20 minute telephone convention with Trump and Brad in lieu of a depo.. Following was mentioned:”
The remainder of the message is solely redacted by a giant black rectangle.
The doc, ABC Information has confirmed, was amongst these supplies reviewed in unredacted kind by some members of Congress on Monday, following the Justice Division’s major release of files from its probe into Epstein, the late intercourse offender who died by suicide in 2019.
Amongst those that reviewed the e-mail was Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who mentioned it was “puzzling” why the doc was redacted within the first place. Raskin additionally mentioned the message’s content material “appears to be at odds” with a number of the issues President Trump has mentioned concerning the finish of his affiliation with Epstein within the 2000s.
In accordance with Raskin, the doc comprises a abstract that Epstein’s legal professionals offered Epstein about what Trump mentioned through the name about Epstein, with whom he had previously socialized earlier than that they had a falling out.
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a invoice signing ceremony within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, February 3, 2026.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
“Epstein’s legal professionals synopsized and quoted Trump as saying that Jeffrey Epstein was not a member of his membership at Mar-a-Lago, however he was a visitor at Mar-a-Lago, and he had by no means been requested to go away. And that was redacted for some indeterminate, inscrutable cause,” Raskin instructed ABC Information.
“I do know it appears to be at odds with some issues that President Trump has been saying lately about how he had kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his membership or requested him to go away, and this was at the least one report that seems to contradict that,” Raskin mentioned.
Requested by ABC Information if Raskin felt the redaction was made as a result of it might be embarrassing to the president, Raskin mentioned, “No — I do not know why that was redacted. It was puzzling to me that that dialog was redacted.”
ABC Information has not seen the unredacted doc, and can’t independently verify Raskin’s account of its contents.
If Raskin’s account is correct, it will seem like in battle with what President Trump mentioned about his claims that he booted Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago after discovering that Epstein was poaching staff from the membership’s spa.
“He did one thing that was inappropriate,” Trump told reporters final yr relating to Epstein. “He employed assist, and I mentioned, ‘Do not ever do this once more.’ He stole people who labored for me. I mentioned, ‘Do not ever do this once more.’ He did it once more. And I threw him out of the place persona non-grata.”
A Justice Division official instructed ABC Information that the redacted portion of the 2009 e mail was a privileged communication between Epstein and his lawyer.
A White Home spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.
On the time of the e-mail, in October 2009, Epstein was out of jail after spending 13 months within the Palm Seaside County Stockade, and was a few months into the 12-month probationary interval that adopted.
A number of of Epstein’s victims have been suing him, and legal professional Brad Edwards, who was representing a number of the victims, had been looking for to depose Trump and a number of Epstein’s different high-profile associates.
As Edwards instructed ABC Information in 2019, Trump and his attorneys supplied to carry a name with Edwards rather than a deposition.
“His lawyer known as the very subsequent day and mentioned, ‘Look, I will arrange a phone convention,” Edwards mentioned. “‘And Donald Trump will let you know all the things that he is aware of. You may take his deposition if you wish to. You do not have to take his deposition both. Nothing to cover right here.'”
Edwards described Trump as useful and cooperative in offering info that he wanted for his litigation, and Trump was not deposed.
“A number of the issues that he mentioned are that he is been to Jeffrey Epstein’s home and noticed younger ladies. Not underage ladies. And that he is been to Jeffrey Epstein’s home and noticed ladies within the yard of his Palm Seaside residence,” Edwards recalled within the 2019 interview. “That was solely useful to me as a result of then I knew simply because some vital individual is coming over … Jeffrey Epstein would not change his life-style. He isn’t hiding what he is doing. I believed that that was vital.”
“And Trump did all the time say, ‘Look, sure, ladies have been all the time round him. Within the public locations the place I socialized with him, they didn’t seem like underage,'” Edwards recalled.
Edwards was not instantly out there for remark when ABC Information reached out following Monday’s developments.
