[0:00]Coming up, get there and I'm all sweaty and running shorts. Donald Trump walks in, you know, hovering and smirking like a Cheshshire grant. The president and the pedophile. >> Are you still talking about Jeffrey
[0:11]Epstein? >> He's been dead for 6 years. >> Trump supporters see Jeffrey Epstein as the devil. >> But billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. >> We need to release the Epstein list. >> I call it the Epstein hoax.
[0:21]>> Continues to haunt Donald Trump. >> Trump really seems to be hiding something. >> That's next on 60 Minutes. No matter the ultimate outcome of Donald
[0:34]Trump's face-to-face dialogue with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, just getting the meeting to happen is a significant achievement for the US president. It's
[0:44]clear Trump is not without talents. On his home front, he's been particularly adept in his ability to endure scandal. In the last 5 years, the president's
[0:56]faced 91 felony counts, four criminal indictments, two impeachment trials, and in a civil case, has been found liable
[1:04]for sexual abuse. Yet last November, a majority of Americans still voted for him to lead them. Now though, there are
[1:14]chinks in Trump's armor. The reason is his bumpy handling of the so-called Epstein files. evidence that may or may not exist about the powerful connections
[1:26]of America's most despised pedophile, the now dead billionaire, Jeffrey Epstein. >> Have you ever had a personal
[1:35]relationship with Donald Trump? >> What do you mean by personal relationships? >> Have you socialized with him? >> Yes, sir. >> Yes.
[1:45]>> Yes, sir. Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of
[1:53]females under the age of 18? Though I'd like to answer that question at least today, I'm going to have to
[2:03]assert my fifth, sixth, and 14th amendment right. >> It's the question that has consumed Washington DC and the world for weeks.
[2:15]Just what was Donald Trump's relationship with the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein? And how much does the president know about the depraved world created by
[2:25]the pedophile financia? >> Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? >> A billionaire accused of child sex trafficking. >> Epstein was connected to some of the
[2:37]most powerful people in the world. And despite their friendship, the president has long positioned himself as the man capable of exposing Jeffrey Epstein's
[2:48]darkest secrets. >> Would you declassify the Epstein files? >> Yeah. Yeah, I would. >> But a few weeks ago, after months of teasing a release of the case files, the
[2:59]Trump administration unexpectedly backflipped. A review from the Justice Department and FBI did not find any evidence that notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
[3:09]kept the so-called client list. >> The fallout has spiraled into a full-blown political scandal that Donald Trump, for once, can't seem to shake. At
[3:21]the heart of it is the friendship between the president and the pedophile. Is the president lying? Oh my heavens, yes. Yes, he's lying.
[3:32]Yes. [Music]
[3:42]Is a long way from Washington DC. It's where Maria Farmer has built a quiet life for herself after she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his
[3:54]accomplice Gileain Maxwell. But as scandal has engulfed the White House, she can no longer stay silent about President Trump's handling of the
[4:05]Epstein files. It's one of the most egregious acts of injustice I've ever witnessed. It feels like Watergate times like a
[4:16]billion because it involves children. And I think that what he's doing is trying to cover up his association or affiliation with these people. Since
[4:26]becoming president, Donald Trump has done everything in his power to distance himself from the billionaire financia and his vile crimes. >> I had a falling out with him a long time
[4:37]ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan. >> But for Maria, there can be no doubting the depth of their relationship. Epstein said he was his best friend. He just
[4:49]said, "That's my best friend." Maria was in her early 20s when she was hired and abused by Jeffrey Epstein in the mid 1990s.
[5:00]During that time, she witnessed firsthand how close her boss was to Donald Trump. Epstein said when Trump
[5:09]and his wife divorced Ivana, he said, "I inherited Trump and Gilan inherited Ivana." And so you'll see Ivana at the house a lot and you'll see Trump at the
[5:20]offices, but the Twain will never cross. They'll never meet. >> It was in Epstein's Manhattan office that Maria claims she had a disturbing encounter with the now president. First
[5:32]time I met him was the night before I started my job. And Epstein said, "I need you to come up to the offices." And I was like, "It's 9:00 at night, you know, and I guess I'll just run up
[5:43]there." And he said, "Okay. So, I get there and I'm all sweaty and running shorts. Donald Trump walks in and he's really strange and he stood,
[5:54]you know, hovering and smirking like all knowing, you know, like omnisient grin, like a cheshshire grin. So, I went I made like I don't know, it was just an
[6:05]instinct. I made the ugliest face I could think of. And Epstein thought it was adorable. He walked out and he goes, "Oh, no, Maria. No, she's not here for you." Just like that. He emphasized,
[6:16]"She's not here for you." He goes, "Come with me." And he escorts Trump. So here's Ebstein's part. He escorts Trump into this other room. And Trump utters under his breath. He mutters, "Oh, I
[6:28]thought she was 16." And I thought that was just really weird. Like it was beyond locker room talk. Maria says she never saw Trump behave inappropriately.
[6:39]And the White House has contested her version of events, insisting the president never visited Epstein's offices. So when the White House says
[6:50]Donald Trump was never at Jeffrey Epstein's offices, is the president lying? Oh my heavens. Yes. Yes, he's lying.
[6:59]Yes. The friendship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is well documented. For nearly two decades, they were well
[7:11]known as men about town. One a notorious property developer, the other a wealthy financier. They were often seen together
[7:20]at parties and events from New York to Florida. Trump was a passenger on Epstein's private jet, both alone and with his
[7:30]family. Epstein was even a guest at Trump's wedding to Mara Maples. And in 2002, he described Jeffrey Epstein as a
[7:40]terrific guy, telling a journalist that his friend was a lot of fun to be with and that he liked beautiful women, many
[7:49]on the younger side. But behind the glamorous facade, Jeffrey Epstein was a monster.
[7:59]By 2006, he had been exposed as a pedophile. >> Yes, ma'am. convicted of child sex trafficking, but it would be years
[8:08]before the true extent of his depravity would be revealed. By then, Donald Trump says he had cut him off. >> For years, I wouldn't talk to Jeffrey
[8:19]Epstein. I wouldn't talk because he did something that was inappropriate. Again, he stole people that work for me. I said, "Don't ever do that again." He did it again and I threw him out of the
[8:30]place. persona non grata. I threw him out. >> However, the friendship soured. It's now under renewed scrutiny after President Trump backflipped on an election promise
[8:42]to release the so-called Epstein files. What is it about the Epstein case, these promised files, that's so alluring, so
[8:52]fascinating to Trump's followers and his detractors? >> There were a lot of unanswered questions. How did he make so much money? Um, why were all of these influential people from Bill Gates to
[9:03]Bill Clinton to Donald Trump, why did they all hang out with him? What exactly was he up to? And you have these real legitimate victims. >> Will Sana is a seasoned political
[9:14]reporter and author. He says this issue has captivated Trump's Make America Great Again movement like no other. >> I mean, Trump supporters see Jeffrey
[9:25]Epstein as the, you know, the devil. I mean they they see him as a incredibly evil figure and and you know to be fair I mean I think they're correct but they they also see him as perhaps as someone
[9:35]who was the key to this larger network. This guy who was in their belief um you know providing young girls to world elites.
[9:46]>> Many believe the names of who was in that network lie within the Epstein files. more than 300 GB of data and physical evidence of the vile crimes
[9:57]committed against more than a thousand girls and young women. Some, like the flight logs from his private plane dubbed the Lolita Express, have already
[10:07]been made public, but any kind of client list remains elusive. Earlier this year, though, the president was told his name appears in the files several times. It's
[10:19]not clear in what capacity, but the revelation has added to the intrigue about why he won't make them public. In a sense, is that part of why this has
[10:29]become such a big problem for Trump? Because on one hand, his supporters who see Jeffrey Robbstein as the devil, see Trump as the man who's going to bring it all to light and expose it all and bring
[10:39]it all down, but then on the other hand, he's clearly involved. >> It's something that's very hard for them to to figure out. And I think this is perhaps this is why this moment has been so challenging for Trump because they
[10:51]were able to ignore, you know, decades old video footage, but now that you have this more information about their relationship coming to light and then the biggest obstacle which is that Trump really seems to be hiding something. Uh,
[11:02]and so as a result, people even Trump supporters are starting to say, you know, geez, this is really suspicious. Maria Farmer is certainly suspicious,
[11:12]not just because of her experience with the now president, but because she alerted authorities years ago. She was the first of Jeffrey Epstein's victims
[11:23]to sound the alarm, contacting the FBI in 1996 and documenting it in her diary at the time. And I just remember trying to
[11:33]explain to this man at the FBI that children are in severe danger. And so I told him, I said, "Listen, I'm calling to report an international
[11:44]pedophile and child porn ring. This is a federal crime." And it wasn't only Jeffrey Epstein and Galain Maxwell she mentioned.
[11:55]I said, "And there's this businessman." I said, "He's kind of cheesy." And I said, I can't remember if I described him as a game show host or used car salesman or something like that, but I
[12:06]said he's a prominent businessman. He's a New York fixture. And they said, "Oh, Donald Trump." The FBI guessed based on that brief description that I was discussing Donald Trump.
[12:17]Her complaint wasn't taken seriously then or in 2006 when she repeated her allegations to federal authorities who were finally investigating Jeffrey
[12:29]Epstein. So when President Trump vowed to get to the bottom of the Epstein saga, Maria was cynical. I reported him because I knew he was part of this gang.
[12:40]I didn't know on what level. I just knew that he was very he was very much a part of it. And as you'll see, the president's reluctance to be transparent
[12:51]has for the first time turned his supporters against him. I expected
[12:59]files to be released and people that deserve to be held accountable held accountable. [Music]
[13:12]In Washington DC, political scandals come and go, and no one's better at shaking them off than President Trump. But the case of the Epstein files has
[13:24]stuck like mud. Is this the biggest crisis of the Trump administration so far? >> It is the biggest crisis. Yes. I I would say that the Trump administration is
[13:35]really out of step here and they don't know what to do. >> Political reporter and author Will Summer has watched the president try unsuccessfully to contain the Epstein
[13:46]saga. Will says it's a mess of Trump's own making after Republicans politicized the story. I mean, Epstein was a huge issue. I mean, it was one of the the major issues
[13:58]of the Trump campaign. I mean, they would go on these podcasts, on TV shows, and so people bring it up a lot. Uh, and they say, you know, are you going to be the one who finally figures out what what happened to Epstein? How did he
[14:10]die? Who is he associated with? I think a lot of people really believe Trump would do it. So, he's kind of hoisted on his own petard here. I mean, he revved up this base and now when they're asking for what he promised them, he's refusing
[14:20]to deliver. Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Epste. >> When Jeffrey Epstein's death in 2019 was ruled a suicide by a New York medical
[14:31]examiner, almost immediately, President Trump publicly latched on to conspiracy theories that it was part of a cover up to protect his client list.
[14:42]>> And certainly about the way he died. It would be interesting to find out what happened there cuz that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etc., etc. Trump really is sort of the conspiracy theorist and
[14:52]chief in the United States. I mean, he is a guy who built his political career on conspiracy theories um and just sort of lies more broadly. A lot of his
[15:02]appeal is is based on the idea that he he builds himself up as this guy who will protect you not just from Democrats or people whose policies you don't like, but from these really nefarious evil
[15:13]forces. And then the question you have to ask is did Bill Clinton go to the island? Because Epstein had an island? That was not a good place as I
[15:22]understand. But if I was ever there. >> Releasing the files and in doing so bringing down the so-called Washington elites was a Trump presidential campaign
[15:33]promise. >> Yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it. >> Repeated by the right-wing echo chamber. >> Release the list.
[15:44]Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That That is an important thing. >> So, when the administration changed course last month, >> I call it the Epstein hoax, >> announcing there was no client list, no
[15:56]evidence of blackmail, and nothing to see, the reaction from the Make America Great Again movement was swift and furious. I can't reconcile this Donald
[16:07]Trump with the Trump that we're seeing right now. The Trump that is gaslighting the public right now. The Epstein scandal is definitely terminal cancer to Trump's MAGA movement.
[16:17]>> You're telling me there's no list after you told me there was a list. >> Where's the Epstein files? Can't find them. Don't exist. Like they can get away with [ __ ] Matt.
[16:28]>> I have three of my MAGA hats here today and um we're going to burn them. Have you been surprised by the extent of
[16:37]the the backlash from Donald Trump's support base? A lot of people who voted for him have now turned against him.
[16:47]>> I think that that comes certainly when you make statements and promises and then you walk it back. Theresa Helm
[16:56]voted for President Trump in last year's election because she believed he would expose Epstein's wider network. I expected
[17:07]files to be released and people that deserve to be held accountable held accountable. >> And she has more reason than most to
[17:18]feel betrayed by the president's lack of action. In 2002, while studying at a massage college in Los Angeles, then
[17:28]22-year-old Teresa was lured into Jeffrey Epstein's dark orbit when she went for a job interview. He was a very
[17:37]charismatic man. Um, he was very friendly to start. I felt good about being there. I felt good about
[17:48]this opportunity. Then he said, "Let's go to my office." Um, that's when everything changed and
[17:57]his demeanor changed. It was there, Teresa says. Epstein requested a massage.
[18:07]Literally within seconds, everything shifted from what I thought was a safe interview to this is very unsafe and
[18:18]this does not feel right. and this is not right and I don't know what's happening and I don't know what to do. Not too much longer later, I uh found
[18:28]the door and and ran out of there. Theresa says she was sexually assaulted by Epstein, but it was years before she
[18:39]realized she was one of hundreds of young women ins snared in his depraved world. It was definitely systematic. Everything was pre-planned,
[18:50]pre-arranged, organized. I was a like a a human baton that these women just passed along. The Department of Justice has said there is no concrete evidence.
[19:02]There is no basis for investigating any third party. In your experience, how is that possible? It's impossible to do everything that they've done and harmed
[19:13]as many people as they have harmed without help. you know, they've had a lot of help. So, who are they? >> Do you think Trump's giving people the
[19:23]sense that he's not only protecting perhaps friends, predators, but also himself?
[19:32]>> I think increasingly that is sort of the conclusion to draw. You have to start wondering why is Trump acting so strangely about this? So, you can see the administration attempts to sort of
[19:43]reduce the excitement around the files. Uh, and I think a lot of that is based on the fact that Trump is in them. >> So, is this the scandal that will
[19:53]finally stick to Teflon Trump? >> This guy is just a [ __ ] survivor. Whatever you think of Donald Trump,
[20:07]there can be no denying the first 6 months of his second presidency has been productive. He secured the border, addressed
[20:17]inflation, and introduced a sprawling budget bill overhauling tax cuts and healthcare. But for weeks now, no matter where he is in the world or what's on
[20:29]his agenda, there's a dark, uncomfortable controversy the president simply can't escape. >> You know, Epstein was always a very controversial guy. I never had the
[20:40]privilege of going to his island. Uh, and I did turn it down, but a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. >> It is a crisis for him because it's a
[20:49]crisis of credibility. It's a crisis of integrity. Donald Trump needs to be talking about legislation. He needs to be talking about policy. So, anytime
[20:59]he's on the defense, anytime he's talking about something that he said or did that isn't about getting something done for the American people, that's a negative. [Music]
[21:10]pollster and political analyst Frank LZ has done more focus groups with Trump voters than just about anyone in the United States. So he knows why even in
[21:22]the face of scandal, Trump's base is unshakable. >> His own voters aren't voting for him because of his character. His own voters
[21:33]aren't voting for him because he's a stand-up guy. They're voting for him because he'll bring about the change they want. and they need and frankly they deserve. Look at it this way. He
[21:45]was impeached impeached twice. He was involved in January 6th. Four different cases, 91 felony counts and
[21:55]yet he was still elected president. Donald Trump is the ultimate survivor and I expect nothing different about this current situation. This guy is just
[22:06]a [ __ ] survivor. But for those who were harmed by Jeffrey Epstein, there's no forgiving or forgetting.
[22:16]Maria Farmer was sexually assaulted by Epstein and Galain Maxwell in 1996. She reported the pair to the FBI that
[22:26]same year and named Donald Trump as one of their associates. But authorities did nothing and now
[22:36]she's suing the US government for failing to protect her. I want to hold the government accountable for systemic abuse of victims and children.
[22:47]Maria's attorney, Jennifer Freeman, represents several of Epstein and Maxwell's victims. This has been one of the largest law enforcement failures in US history.
[22:59]Would we be sitting here today, Jennifer, having this conversation if federal authorities had listened to Maria in 1996? >> That's really the underlying sadness of
[23:11]this. That's the tragedy here is no, we would not. Uh over a thousand victims could have been spared. Some 30 years of abuse could have been avoided,
[23:20]prevented. It's it's tragic. Like Maria and her lawyer, Theresa Helm is determined to seek justice, Theresa
[23:32]was lured to Jeffrey Epstein's home by Gileain Maxwell in 2002 and sexually assaulted. She simply doesn't accept the assessment
[23:43]of US authorities that Maxwell, convicted five times and serving a 20-year jail term, is the only person culpable.
[23:54]Do you believe the names of some of the other people that helped facilitate these crimes are in those files? I don't know exactly what these files
[24:04]are supposed to look like. I have no idea. But what I do know is there has to be evidence supporting their network.
[24:13]You don't carry out an enterprise of exploitation for decades and have no paper trail or no trail at all. Jeffrey Epstein's secrets died with him
[24:28]and Gain Maxwell has repeatedly denied her crimes, refusing to reveal details of how the trafficking operation was run and who else was involved.
[24:40]But with pressure building on the president to take action, he sent federal authorities to interview Maxwell at a Florida courthouse late last month.
[24:49]She was asked m maybe about a hundred different people. She answered questions about everybody. Um and she didn't hold anything back. >> But isn't the >> already Gileain Maxwell has been moved
[25:01]to a minimum security prison and she's playing the president refusing to testify before Congress unless she's granted protection.
[25:12]How do you feel when you see federal authorities sent to reinter that she's moved to a minimum security prison?
[25:22]>> It's disgusting. Gilen is a liar and a pedophile. Who gives credence to that? >> Mr. President,
[25:32]>> there can be no doubt Trump's sloppy handling of the Epstein files and the ensuing mess has wounded him. But according to Frank L's recent polling,
[25:43]it's not enough to permanently scar the president. >> Make no mistake, Jeffrey Epste is probably the most hated person in America next to Adolf Hitler.
[25:55]But that said, it's not something top of mind. It is not something that people prioritize. Is this an irritant? Absolutely.
[26:05]Does this change the political equation for Donald Trump? Probably not. >> For now, it's proving a tenacious thorn
[26:15]in the president's side. But like so many who've supported Donald Trump, Teresa is willing him to resolve this saga.
[26:26]Do you fear the president is not releasing these files in order to protect certain people? I hope not.
[26:38]perhaps even himself. I feel that I'm holding on to hope that we're going to get to the bottom of this because I'm not ready to accept that
[26:53]this is the end of the road and this is a case closed. Not ready to accept that. On this week's 60 Minutes podcast, Extra
[27:02]Minutes, to what extent are the Epstein files harming Donald Trump's presidency in the last few weeks? It's just blown up for him. And I know there are some Republicans in Congress who are saying
[27:14]this could hurt him in the midterm elections. That's Extra Minutes available now on the 60 Minutes Australia YouTube