Trump biographer says ‘betrayal’ ended Trump’s friendship with Epstein
During an interview with MeidasTouch , a Donald Trump biographer shared "Epstein's explanation" for why the disgraced financier's friendship with Trump ended.
The biographer, Michael Wolff, claimed the trouble stemmed from "a real estate betrayal," and recalled a series of events he said that Epstein told him personally.
"In 2004, Epstein believed himself to be the high bidder on a piece of real estate in Palm Beach - a house," Wolff said. "$36 million was his bid. He took his friend, Trump, to see the house, to advise him on how to move the swimming pool."
After the meeting, Wolff claimed that Trump "went around Epstein's back" to bid $40 million and secure the property for himself.
"Epstein, who was acquainted, in fact deeply involved, with Trump's scattered finances, understood that he didn't have $40 million to pay for this house," Wolff said.
As a result, Epstein was "furious" and believed that Trump received the money from a Russian oligarch — the same Russian oligarch who would purchase the home from him for $95 million less than two years later, per Wolff's account.
"This is all a red flag of money laundering," he said.
That very "betrayal" would set in motion Epstein's "legal problems for the next 15 years," Wolff added.
Wolff claimed that "Epstein began to threaten with lawsuits, with going to the press and saying that Trump was a frontman for a money laundering deal." In turn, "Epstein believed that it was Trump who went to the police and, as Epstein said, 'dropped the dime on him.'"
The story also appears in Wolff's 2019 book, "Siege: Trump Under Fire."
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