Jeffrey Epstein tried to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump’s associates during the Republican’s 2016 presidential run, TheWall Street Journal reports. Among the meetings the sex-trafficker set up were lunches with real estate investor Thomas Barrack—a close friend of Trump’s—and onetime Trump megadonor Peter Thiel. Epstein’s emails and schedules reveal that he invited Thiel and Barrack to get-togethers with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations who died in 2017. The purpose for such meetings remains unclear. Epstein also planned meetings with Churkin’s son, Max, then in business school and who was later hired at a Russian bank. Trump and Epstein palled around Palm Beach together in the 1990s until they had what Trump described as a “falling out.” Still, the Journal reported, “Epstein told associates he was pleased with Trump’s win, boasting that he knew several potential cabinet members.”
