Trump Said He Banned Epstein From Mar-a-Lago. A Lawmaker Who Reviewed Unredacted Files Says They Tell a Different Story

A Democratic lawmaker who has reviewed unredacted portions of the Jeffrey Epstein files—with the help of Reddit users—says they directly contradict President Donald Trump’s account of barring Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. Read more: New Investigation Launched into Epstein’s 7,600-Acre Zorro Ranch. Here’s What We Know Rep. Maxwell Frost told TIME that multiple witness statements in the files refute Trump’s claim that he expelled the convicted sex offender from the Palm Beach club in 2007. Frost said he plans to disclose further details in a speech on the House floor in the coming weeks, where members of Congress are shielded from defamation lawsuits under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. “I read many documents that completely refute what Donald Trump has said in terms of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” Frost said, adding that there was a “specific document” in the files containing multiple witness accounts that contradict the President’s version of events. Trump said in 2025 that he banned Epstein after learning the financier had recruited young female spa workers away from Mar-a-Lago. But The New York Times previously reported that Trump told associates he removed Epstein for a different reason—that Epstein had behaved inappropriately toward the teenage daughter of a club member. Frost also said he reviewed material he believes undermines statements made by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his relationship with Epstein. “This is obviously the administration engaged in some sort of cover up, because we said we don’t want any redactions unless it’s victim names,” he said during a phone interview from Orlando, Florida. “That’s it, victim names—not to protect friends of Donald Trump, not to protect billionaires and elites in this country, the names of victims.” In response to a request for comment, a White House spokesperson directed TIME to a video clip of remarks Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered last week. In the clip, Leavitt said Trump “kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because, frankly, Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” and said the President “cut off his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and was honest and transparent about that for years and years.” Frost is one of dozens of members of Congress who have access to the unredacted version of the Epstein files. Since Congress passed the law that demands the release of the full Epstein files in November, congressional members and committees have sent letters to the DOJ demanding to see the unredacted version of the Epstein files. As bipartisan lawmakers head to the Department of Justice to dig through caches of documents, congressional Democrats are assigning documents to lawmakers to make sure they are not viewing the same ones. “We need to essentially divide and conquer and try to figure out how we can put this picture together with the limited time that we have in there,” said. Frost, the 29-year-old progressive congressman widely viewed as part of a rising generation reshaping the Democratic Party, described the emotional toll of confronting the material firsthand. Elected in 2022 as the first Gen Z member of Congress, Frost has used his online platform to update followers on his review of the Epstein files. But he told TIME that the day he went into the DOJ to review the Epstein files was a “rough day” for him. “Reading about what happened to these girls, to these children, to these teens. It messes you up, it really does, and it shows you just how real this whole thing is,” he said.   Frost has turned to Reddit to help identify specific document numbers to review, after keyword searches yielded an unmanageable number of results. His post in a subreddit on the platform dedicated to the Epstein files quickly generated thousands of leads pointing to specific documents among the 3.5 million newly released files, many of which were heavily redacted. Frost said his team then compiled 11 pages of document numbers that Reddit users provided. “Honestly, crowd sourcing information from the people is something politicians need to do more of,” Rep. Maxwell said. “We don’t know everything. We have a limited staff, but out there, there are people who are combing through these documents, who themselves have put pieces together that maybe we haven’t even thought of.” This past week, Frost went to the DOJ focusing on documents relating to his home state of Florida, where Epstein was first convicted of child prostitution in 2008. Even after hours of review, Frost said he had barely scratched the surface. “Usually in these types of investigations, it’s not one document where you go, ‘Oh, my God, I cracked the code.’
I mean, it doesn’t really work that way,” Frost said. “You look through these documents, and you put the puzzle together to figure out who is involved, how were they involved? What do they know, and why have we been lied to?” Although congressional Democrats say they plan to review more documents before pursuing additional criminal referrals relating to the Epstein investigation, Frost is already escalating his response. He has called for the impeachment of Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of excessively redacting the Epstein files and surveilling lawmakers’ search histories as they examine the Epstein files. Bondi faced bipartisan criticism after she was photographed with a document that detailed Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s search history of the Epstein files during her congressional hearing.  “These pictures of having the search history of Pramila, I think it’s disgusting.
And think about it this way. If they have nothing to hide, why are they spying on members of Congress?” he asked. “There’s a separation of powers for a reason, and we have to be able to do the work that we’re doing without being spied up on by this administration and without having that information being used against us.” Frost also said the DOJ has limited lawmakers to two-hour sessions to review the Epstein files. Multiple outlets have reported that lawmakers must schedule appointments at the DOJ at least 24 hours in advance to assess the documents at a secure facility. They are also prohibited from bringing any electronic devices with them, making it harder for lawmakers to make redacted information available to the public. Despite these constraints, Frost plans to go back to the DOJ at least twice next week in an effort to delve deeper into the investigation. “This is about people who have evaded justice for a long time. And the sad part is that it’s not new in this country. Billionaires, elites, politicians, people with power have been able to do whatever they want without facing the consequences forever in the United States,” he said.   He also pointed to the House Oversight Committee’s subpoenas to JP Morgan and Deutsche Banks for their financial records of Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, five additional depositions scheduled in the coming months, and more investigations into the Epstein estates. “This investigation into not just the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, but the crimes of many people, I think are not just going to bring a lot of them down, but it’s a reckoning for this nation,” he said. “It goes deep, and every single one of them needs to be held accountable.”