In a bombshell revelation, newly uncovered photos and video footage show that convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein attended Donald Trump’s 1993 wedding to Marla Maples at New York’s iconic Plaza Hotel. The claim, made public by CNN’s KFile, sheds fresh light on the US President’s long and controversial association with Epstein — a relationship that has drawn renewed scrutiny amid the US Justice Department’s refusal to release long-promised Epstein files.
For the first time, photographic evidence confirms Jeffrey Epstein was present at the high-society wedding — a detail that had not been widely reported until now. One of the photographs, taken by renowned photographer Dafydd Jones, captures Epstein entering the lavish venue.
“I must have recognised him going in [to the event],” Jones told CNN, recalling how he only photographed guests he found interesting.
Adding to the intrigue, CNN also uncovered raw archival footage from a 1999 Victoria’s Secret fashion show in New York. The video shows Donald Trump and Epstein laughing and chatting ahead of the runway event.
The pair also appeared at a 1997 Victoria’s Secret “Angels” party, underlining Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s close ties with the brand’s then-owner, billionaire Leslie Wexner, whose finances Epstein managed from the late 1980s to 2007.
In a brief phone call with CNN on Tuesday, when asked about the wedding photo, Donald Trump responded: “You’ve got to be kidding me,” before abruptly hanging up, after labelling CNN as “fake news.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed the images, saying: “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.”
While Epstein’s legal troubles began in 2005, his social ties with Trump date back to the 1980s. In a now-infamous 2002 New York Magazine profile, Trump was quoted saying:
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
The Wall Street Journal added fuel to the fire last week with the publication of an alleged birthday message Trump sent to Epstein in 2003, for his 50th birthday. The typed note included an outline of a naked woman and ended with the line:
“Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump has denied writing the message or drawing the illustration, and has filed a libel suit against the Wall Street Journal in Florida.
Despite their eventual falling out in the mid-2000s—allegedly over a Palm Beach real estate deal—photos, party logs, and flight manifests confirm that the two were once frequent companions at events in Palm Beach and New York. Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet at least seven times, according to flight logs.
In his 2004 book Trump: How to Get Rich, Trump even referred to a mysterious caller named “Jeffrey”: “As mysterious as Jeffrey is, he’s one of the few people I know who can get by on just a first name… which in a way puts him up there with Elvis.”
Images from a 2000 charity event at Mar-a-Lago, published in the Palm Beach Post, also showed Donald Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell (now serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking), and Prince Andrew.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department faces mounting pressure over its handling of sealed Epstein files, with a federal judge setting a deadline for a decision on whether grand jury transcripts will be unsealed.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, told CNN: “Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”
With every new revelation, the web surrounding Trump and Epstein grows more tangled — and the calls for transparency grow louder. Whether the resurfaced wedding photo proves a turning point or yet another twist in an already bizarre tale, one thing is certain: the past is never really past.
