Donald Trump and notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were “good friends” who routinely flew on each other’s private planes, in spite of President Trump’s insistence that the two barely knew each other.

That’s according to Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s brother, who told CNN that Trump dragged his heels in pushing for the release of the infamous Epstein files as there are “things in there he doesn’t want people to see.”

The will they/won’t they release of the files – separate from the 20,000 plus pages of documents released by Congress last week – has dominated the first phase of Trump’s second presidency.

Indeed, Trump himself was vocal during his election campaign with a promise to release the files, come what may. When push came to shove, however, he tried to swat away the Epstein “hoax” (his word), claiming it to be a scheme of the Democrats to detract from his successes.

Facing massive pushback from Epstein’s victims, the Democrats, and even members of the Republican party, Trump changed his tune just days ago to back the release of the files.

Yesterday, November 20, he finally signed a bill ordering the release of all government files related Epstein.

From left, American real estate developer Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, February 12, 2000. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The administration now has 30 days to release the findings, the fallout from which could be widespread and unprecedented. Speculation and rumor has tied any number of high-profile individuals to Epstein, but until now there has been little to no concrete evidence to back them up.

Trump’s name, of course, will be a focal point people look for when the files are released. After all, the POTUS was friends with Epstein at one point in time, even if he’s repeatedly tried to play down any sort of relationship.

One man who hasn’t forgotten how close Trump and Epstein allegedly were is Epstein’s brother, Mark.

IN FLIGHT – NOVEMBER 14: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of press aboard Air Force One on November 14, 2025 while in flight from Washington, DC to West Palm Beach International Airport. Trump is scheduled to spend the weekend at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
He recently warned that there was a very particular reason as to why Trump suddenly started calling for the release of the Epstein files last week, having spent the previous days branding them a “hoax” and a “distraction” engineered by his political rivals.

Speaking to NewsNation, Epstein said: “I’ve been recently told the reason they’re going to be releasing these things, and the reason for the flip is that they’re sanitizing these files.”

He also stated that FBI director Kash Patel is in on the plot, claiming to have heard that the ‘scrubbing’ is taking place in Virginia.

“There’s a facility in Winchester, Virginia, where they’re scrubbing the files to take Republican names out of it,” Mark said.

He’s now spoken to CNN, doubling down on his opinion that Trump was attempting to hide something by not releasing the files. “There’s things in there he doesn’t want people to see,” Mark said in an interview with Erin Burnett.

He went on to shed light on the friendship his brother and Trump had. When asked if he was surprised by how much conversation there was relating to Trump in the emails released last week, Mark said: “Not whatsoever. Jeffrey and Donald were very good friends through the ’90s, and I don’t know exactly when it ended, 2004 or something, but they were very good friends.

“They used to fly on each other’s planes. And they say that Donald was on Jeff’s plane like seven times, but the question is have they checked Donald’s flight logs from those days, to see how many times Jeffrey was on his plane? ‘Cause I know Jeffrey told me on a number of occasions that he flew up or flew down with Donald on his plane. And Donald was in Jeffrey’s office quite a bit back in the ’90s.

“They were good friends. Everybody around knew that.”

What do you think will happen when the files are released? Let us know in the comments.