Newly uncovered photos, video footage reveal Trump-Epstein ties: CNN

CNN revealed newly uncovered archived video footage and photos Tuesday showing US President Donald Trump’s past relationship with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In an exclusive report, it released photos of Epstein attending Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Footage from a 1999 Victoria’s Secret fashion event in New York shows Trump and Epstein laughing and chatting together ahead of the runway event, according to the report.

The report came as scrutiny intensifies around Trump’s past ties to Epstein. The Justice Department’s recent decision to withhold long-promised documents related to the Epstein investigation has sparked a backlash among some in Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, where expectations had built for revelations about Epstein’s alleged accomplices.

Trump, when asked by CNN about the wedding photos, said: “You’ve got to be kidding me,” before repeatedly calling the media outlet “fake news” and hanging up.

According to the report, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said: “These are nothing more than out-of-context frame grabs of innocuous videos and pictures of widely attended events to disgustingly infer something nefarious."

“The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media," Cheung told CNN.

Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While his death was ruled a suicide, a wave of conspiracy theories emerged due to his well-documented connections to famous and powerful public figures.

A federal judge on Tuesday gave Justice Department officials one week to produce more information on why grand jury testimony in the case of Epstein should be unsealed.

Separately, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday that he will shut down the chamber early for August recess, blocking Democratic efforts to force votes on releasing investigation files on Epstein.