A former executive at Trump’s Atlantic City casino claimed that the president once brought Jeffrey Epstein and a 19-year-old girl to the gaming floor.
Jack O’Donnell, who was president of the Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino for four years from 1987, told CNN that president “frequently” visited the New Jersey resort with Epstein to attend “special events.”
“In my mind, it [Epstein] was his best friend, you know, from really the time I was there for four years,” O’Donnell, a frequent Trump critic, told the network Wednesday.
The revelation comes as uproar over the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files refuses to die down. Anger from MAGA over the recent Department of Justice memo declaring the case closed has not subsided, while Trump has reportedly raged that his supporters won’t “shut the f*** up” about the saga.
During one visit to the Atlantic City resort in the late 80s, O’Donnell claimed inspectors of the state casino commission, which regulates gambling and ensures casinos comply with the law, were waiting for him in his office, after the president and disgraced financier had turned up to the venue with a group of three women.
“Donald and Jeffrey had come into the casino in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 1:00, 1:30 in the morning,” O’Donnell told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “You know, two buddies, they had three women with them, and the commission was waiting for me because they had determined that the women that they brought down were underage to be in the casino.”
The former casino boss said that he asked the inspectors how they knew the young woman’s age. “One of them was the number three-ranked tennis player in the world,” O’Donnell explained. “And this guy happened to be a tennis fan and he said, ‘Jack, I know she’s 19 years old.’”
He added: “To get on a helicopter with a friend and three other people and fly down to Atlantic City, I mean, you can connect those dots. They were pretty good buddies.”
It is illegal for anyone under 21 to gamble on the casino floor in New Jersey, a law enforced with strict penalties.
O’Donnell said the commission gave Trump “a break” on this occasion but claimed the commission made him ring the president to reprimand him.
“They made me call him and I had to, believe it or not, read him the Riot Act about this action because they gave him a break,” O’Donnell said. “I had to call them and say, ‘they’re giving you a break this time, but if this happens again, the fine is going to be substantial and it’s going to be on your head.’”
O’Donnell added that he told Trump that turning up with Epstein and the young women was “not gonna look good.”
“I did tell him in that conversation, ‘I don’t think you should be hanging out with this guy, just so you know, and you certainly shouldn’t be doing that in Atlantic City,’” O’Donnell said he told Trump at the end of the phone call.
The president has attempted to distance himself from the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in a New York jail in August 2019.
The two were photographed and filmed together on several occasions and in 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy” whom he had known for 15 years in an interview with New York Magazine.
He added: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
