Donald Trump Jr has been mocked after he celebrated what he apparently interpreted to be his father’s absence from newly-unsealed court documents revealing the names of Jeffrey Epstein associates.
The former president’s son took to X on Thursday morning to hit out at critics following the release of the first batch of filings on Wednesday night.
“The left is so much more upset that Trump isn’t on the Epstein Island list than they are with the actual democrat elite pedophiles who are on the list & who took part in child molestation,” he wrote.
“That tells you all you need to know about today’s democrat party & their leaders!”
Social media users were quick to school Don Jr about the contents of the records – which featured his father’s name four times.
As part of a 2016 deposition, Epstein victim Johanna Sjoberg testified that the first time she flew with Epstein, he called Mr Trump to make a pit stop at his casino in Atlantic City.
Ms Sjoberg said they were travelling, together with fellow Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, from Palm Beach to New York but stopped at Atlantic City for a few hours because of a storm.
Epstein’s Little St James island— (REUTERS)
“We, as we were flying, Jeffrey said, ‘Why don’t you go sit in the cockpit to check out the 12 landing?’ So we were sitting there, and the pilots told me to go back and tell him that we can’t land in New York and that we were going to have to land 16 in Atlantic City,” Ms Sjoberg testified.
“Jeffrey said, ‘Great, we’ll call up Trump and we’ll go to -- I don’t recall the name of the casino, but we’ll go to the casino.’”
Ms Sjoberg testified that she and Ms Giuffre went to Mr Trump’s casino.
However, she testified that she has never met Mr Trump and has never given him a massage.
Mr Trump’s ties to Epstein have been well documented prior to the latest unsealing of filings.
He has been pictured with him at events and flight logs show that he flew on the paedophile’s private jet multiple times.
There is no indication that Mr Trump has committed any wrongdoing and he has not been charged with involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Several X users mocked Don Jr for appearing to ignore his father’s mention in the documents and his connections to the late financier.
“But he is on the list,” came one reply.
“Isn’t your dad on the flight logs also? His name is clearly on page 18. This tells you everything you need to know about MAGA and their leader,” one person wrote.
An undated photo shows Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell— (VIA REUTERS)
“Your dad was in the flight logs and has 90+ public pictures with Epstein but do go on,” chimed in another.
While some people leaped to agree with Don Jr, another person added: “Why don’t you tell the truth for once?”
Dozens of Epstein associates were unmasked on Wednesday after a judge ordered the unsealing of court documents in a now-settled lawsuit brought by Ms Giuffre against Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Giuffre filed the defamation lawsuit against Maxwell in 2015, after she accused her of lying about the years-long abuse she had suffered at the hands of Epstein and some in his inner circle.
The suit was settled in 2017 but was placed under a protective seal – with the identities of those named in the filings kept under lock and key.
The Miami Herald sued for the release of the sealed documents while Maxwell’s legal team sought to block it.
Around 2,000 pages of documents were first unsealed in 2019, with further documents released over the following years.
But, this current trove of documents remained sealed – and the names of hundreds of people associated with the dead paedophile were kept secret, known only as Jane and John Does.
Then, in a landmark ruling last month, US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled that the trove of documents could be released and the names unsealed in full after 1 January.
While the federal judge ordered the names of several Epstein victims to remain anonymous, she said that there was no legal justification to keep the names of Epstein’s associates redacted as “John and Jane Does”.
This has now paved the way for several famous figures to find themselves tied to the notorious disgraced financier.
Several more documents – and names – are expected to be released over the coming days.
An individual being named in the documents does not necessarily mean they are accused of any wrongdoing.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
