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Editor’s note, June 5, 2025, 4:25 pm ET: On Thursday, amid an apparent feud between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the tech billionaire posted on X that Trump was “in the Epstein files,” saying, “That is the real reason they have not been made public.” The story below was originally published on November 5, 2024.

In media and politics, timing is everything — which leaves many people wondering why journalist and author Michael Wolff waited until mere days before the presidential election to drop a bombshell: what he says are recordings of Jeffrey Epstein discussing his intimate friendship with Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Wolff, author of Fire and Fury, a bestselling 201

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