President Donald Trump’s efforts to distance himself from alleged child molester Jeffrey Epstein hit a snag on Wednesday, as newly unearthed footage shows the two yukking it up while ogling NFL cheerleaders at a party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 1992.
The video, which aired this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, features the now-president and Epstein clearly enjoying each other’s company, laughing, and chatting, while a group of women—identified by the network as largely consisting of cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills—danced in front of them.
“Look at her, back there. … She’s hot,” Trump appears to tell Epstein at one point.
The footage was originally shot for NBC’s A Closer Look, as part of a segment on Trump’s lavish post-divorce life after he and former wife Ivana Trump separated.
In the days following Epstein’s most recent arrest for allegedly assaulting “dozens” of young girls, Trump has tried to downplay his former chumminess with Epstein, despite saying in 2002 that “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
During a press gaggle earlier this month, Senior White House advisor Kellyanne Conway insisted Trump and Epstein had long parted ways, telling reporters, “The president told me this morning he hasn’t talked to Epstein—he doesn’t think he’s talked to him or seen him in 10 or 15 years.”
In 2016, a woman identified only as “Jane Doe” accused Trump of raping her in Epstein’s New York City apartment in 1994 when she was 13 years old. He denied the allegation, and a lawsuit over the rape accusation was subsequently dropped. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the latest federal charges against him.
Epstein’s arrest also led to the resignation of Trump Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who helped engineer a non-prosecution agreement for Epstein a decade ago when he was a top federal prosecutor in Florida.