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An artist who first accused Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexual assault almost three decades ago has told the New York Times that at the time she had urged law enforcement officials to investigate powerful people in their orbit, including Donald Trump.
The artist, Maria Farmer, was among the first women to denounce Epstein and his partner Maxwell for sex crimes in 1996, when, according to a new interview with the Times, she also identified Trump among others close to Epstein as worthy of attention.
Farmer repeated that message, she told the Times, when she was re-interviewed by the FBI about Epstein in 2006. She mentioned Trump's name specifically because of a disturbing encounter with him late one night in 1995 at Epstein's offices, which she said she told law enforcement agents at the time and has since told publicly.
Farmer told the Times newspaper that she had "long wondered" how law enforcement agencies handled her complaints in 1996 and 2006.
In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors in South Florida that allowed him to avoid the most serious federal charges while pleading guilty to state criminal charges of prostitution and solicitation of a person under 18. Investigators say he died by suicide in 2019 in a jail cell while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking in 2022.
Farmer's account could shed light on the context in which Trump's name might appear in the unreleased files related to Epstein, a case that has generated unprecedented anger and division among the president's usually loyal supporters.
Any documentary evidence of Farmer's efforts to draw the FBI's attention to Epstein's associates could be politically difficult for Trump, who has tried, but failed, to deflect attention from his ties to the convicted sex offender. Farmer's account could also fuel further disbelief in the official version of events, including findings that Epstein died by suicide.
Epstein's voluminous files almost certainly contain much data that has not been made public and probably include names and details of information, evidence, testimony and relationships that were gathered during the investigation - but which may not have been substantiated or relied upon in his and Maxwell's criminal prosecutions.
Law enforcement agencies have not charged Trump with any violations related to Epstein, and he has never been mentioned as a target of any investigation.
The White House disputed Farmer's account and told the Times that Trump ended his friendship with Epstein many years ago. /Guardian
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