Donald Trump lashed out at allegations that he was on the plane of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
The former president took to Truth Social on Wednesday to share screenshots of a Daily Mail article criticising actor Mark Ruffalo after he backtracked after sharing fake images of Mr Trump on Mr Epstein’s plane surrounded by young girls that turned out to have been created by artificial intelligence.
“Gross. #MAGA wants to paint everyone on those flights as pedophiles except the one guy who smiles in a group of young girls all headed to Epstein’s ‘Fantasy Island’ with him. My bet is there are some decent Republicans left in America that may think this is going too far,” Mr Ruffalo initially wrote, before adding: “Sorry Folks. Apparently these images are AI fakes. The fact Trump was on Epstein’s plane and what Epstein was up to is not. Be careful. Elon’s X and his allowing so much disinformation here is driving the value of his app down by 55%.”
Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social that “this is what the Democrats do to their Republican Opponent, who is leading them, by a lot, in the Polls. This is A.I., and it is very dangerous for our Country! Also, I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island. Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future!”
Documents connected to Epstein have been unsealed after a trove of filings were ordered to be released following the settlement between Epstein fixer Ghislaine Maxwell – who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of child sex trafficking and other crimes – and victim Virginia Giuffre.
Thousands of pages of motions, as well as transcripts of depositions, phone notes, and incident reports from the Palm Beach Police Department and their 2005 investigation into Epstein’s trafficking ring, have been released.
Mr Trump and his fellow ex-President Bill Clinton are both mentioned in the documents, but Judge Loretta Preska noted that a mention may not mean wrongdoing, stating that “victims and absent third parties” were also included.
Most of the information contained in the filings was already publically known. Being identified through the court documents does not mean that the individual was involved in or aware of any wrongdoing by Epstein.
Victim Johanna Sjoberg said she was on a private jet with Epstein when they stopped in Atlantic City.
“Great, we’ll call Trump,” Epstein said, according to Ms Sjoberg.
In 2019, after Epstein was detained, Mr Trump said he “knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him”.
“I had a falling out with him. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” he added.
Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein has said that the late paedophile cut ties with Mr Trump when he realised he “was a crook”.
A spokesperson for Mr Trump previously told The Independent that the allegations against Mr Trump regarding his connections to Epstein are “baseless” and that they were “fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit”.
