Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump Jr hit with community notice after leaving his father’s name off Epstein list

Ex-president’s son shared an article which reported on claims that compromising sex tapes were made by the disgraced financier

Mike Bedigan
Los Angeles
Monday 08 January 2024 19:46 EST
Comments
Which big names are on the Jeffrey Epstein list?

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Donald Trump Jr was subject to a community notice on social media after failing to include his father’s name in a reshared article about associates of late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Trump Jr shared an article from The New York Post on X on Monday, which reported on claims that compromising sex tapes were made by the disgraced financier.

The article’s headline noted that former presidents Trump and Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and British business magnate Richard Branson, were named in the latest batch of unsealed court documents.

Sharing a link to the article, Mr Trump Jr wrote: “This seems like a big deal and if true why has nothing been done about it?

“Breaking News: Court documents allege Jeffrey Epstein recorded sex tapes of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Sir Richard Branson.”

Other users were quick to point out his omission of his father’s name, and a community notice was later added to the post, which stated: “Donald Trump is also one of the persons mentioned in the new court documents.”

The notice added: “This is the actual headline of the article: Epstein accuser claims pedophile had sex tapes of Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson.”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of media organisation Meidas Touch, wrote: “Junior knew his MAGA followers wouldn’t catch that he removed his daddy’s name from the Epstein sex tapes headline because they aren’t exactly big on fact checking the cult leaders, so I get that.

“But did he think nobody else would notice?”

Former president Trump has only been named a handful of times in the Epstein documents so far, though Monday’s batch included new allegations against him.

The new material contained “incendiary claims” about Mr Trump, including accusations that he had sexual relations with “many girls”, made by one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Sarah Ransome.

Steven Cheung, spokesperson for Mr Trump, told The Independent: “These baseless accusations have been fully retracted because they are simply false and have no merit.”

A spokesperson for Mr Branson’s Virgin Group said: “We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2016, Ms Ransome retracted her claims and then in 2019 after settling her claims with Epstein and Maxwell, she also admitted to The New Yorker that the “tapes” had been “invented”. The allegations are baseless and unfounded.

“The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in