Jeffrey Epstein planes: Details about Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, ex-Miss Sweden flights
Former President Donald Trump's campaign for president accidentally on the stump used a former plane recently that was once owned by Jeffrey Epstein because Trump's jet had mechanical problems.
It wasn't the first time Trump rode on aircraft owned by Epstein, the sexual predator who lived part time on Palm Beach, according to flight logs released in two lawsuits. But that was 30-plus years ago. Trump flew while Epstein was alive in the 1990s. Trump lives in Palm Beach at his private club, Mar-a-Lago.
Epstein in 2008 pleaded guilty to two prostitution-related felonies in Palm Beach County in the so-called "deal of the century" and served only 13 months in the county Jail. In 2019, he was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with sex trafficking minors. He was found dead, hanging in his jail cell, less than a month later.
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While he was alive, Epstein hobnobbed with many politicians and celebrities, including two who had either reached or were to reach the White House.
Trump wasn't the only president to hitch a ride on Epstein's jets. Bill Clinton also took flights after he left office in early 2001. Trump was long from being elected in 2016.
Here's what to know about some of Epstein's famous passengers:
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On Jeffrey Epstein's plane: Naomi Campbell, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and a strange incident involving Sarah Ferguson
Some big names, including Great Britain's Prince Andrew, either flew into or out of Palm Beach International Airport (PBIA), where Epstein parked his planes when he stayed at his mansion on El Brillo Way.
In a strange entry in 1998, a pilot noted that Sarah Ferguson and her children met the plane at the Lantana airport after an emergency. The Cessna had been flying from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, but there was no note that Prince Andrew was onboard, only Epstein.
Epstein's housekeeper, Juan Alessi, testified that the divorced Duchess of York dropped by Epstein's Palm Beach mansion one time, according to documents in a lawsuit released in January.
"I think Sarah was there only once and for a short time," he said. "I don't think she slept in there. I cannot remember. I think she was visiting Wellington and she came to the house and we met her."
Epstein reportedly once restructured and paid off a debt for the duchess.
“I, personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me,” she said in 2011 before he was arrested on charges in New York. “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say.”
Celebs included supermodel Naomi Campbell, actor Kevin Spacey and comedian Chris Tucker.
Campbell took five flights aboard the Lolita Express in 2001 and 2003. Two originated in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned his own island that was known to be a place of debauchery. A couple of the flights went to the Sao Paulo, Brazil area.
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Epstein was always present at Victoria's Secret shows where Campbell saw him. She said she met him in 2001 after her boyfriend Flavio Briatore, of Bennetton clothing fame, introduced him.
Campbell has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sexual offenses, saying: “What he’s done is indefensible. And when I had heard what he had done, it sickened me to my stomach just like everybody else. … Right now I stand with the victims."
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It's impossible to tell whether any of these passengers flew while underage girls were aboard. Pilot notes used mainly initials and first names for passengers.
Donald Trump flew 8 times on Epstein's plane in 1993-97, once took wife, Marla, daughter Tiffany, brother Mark
Trump flew on Epstein's planes at least eight times, according to flight logs, most of the time to and from the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, where Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019.
Trump's family tagged along on a May 15, 1994, trip to Washington, D.C. Aboard were then-wife Marla Maples and their daughter, Tiffany. She was about 7 months old and her nanny was in tow.
Trump's third child and second son, Eric, flew on an Aug. 13, 1995, flight with his father from Palm Beach International to Teterboro, flight logs show.
Teterboro is 12 miles from Manhattan, where Trump resided starting in 1983 until he claimed Mar-a-Lago as his residence in 2017. His penthouse in Trump Tower is 11,000 square feet and three stories high.
Teterboro is considered a "reliever" airport, which handles smaller aircraft that weigh less than 100,000 pounds. No scheduled aircraft fly in or out of the airport, according to its website.
Trump and Epstein had ties in Palm Beach. In the 1990s, they sometimes partied together.
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They also got into a bidding war in 2004 for a Palm Beach oceanfront estate offered in a bankruptcy auction. It was owned by Abe Gosman, the nursing home magnate who had hit hard times. Trump won, paying more than $41 million.
Trump has never been accused of having anything to do with Epstein's predation of underage girls.
He once said his neighbor was "a great guy," but when he was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, Trump said, "I'm not a fan."
Bill Clinton flew out of Siberia, China, Morocco among other places on Epstein's plane, sometimes possibly without Secret Service
Clinton was aboard at least 17 flights in 2002-03 after he left office in 2001.
The former president went to some exotic places aboard those flights — Siberia, Morocco, China and Armenia, to name a few — with some famous people such as actor Kevin Spacey and comedian Chris Tucker. News reports said Spacey and Tucker flew to help the Clinton Foundation with its battle against AIDS.
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Flight logs indicate that Spacey took a flight from the U.S. Virgin Islands to PBIA on Sept. 15, 2002, with Epstein and Clinton. The flight with Chris Tucker, which didn't appear to include Clinton, occurred six days later going from JFK International Airport in New York to Vilo do Porto, Portugal. Clinton's aide Doug Bands was on most of the flights that Clinton was.
Two trips with Clinton had no notes that indicated U.S. Secret Service agents were aboard.
Epstein picked up Clinton in Siberia and flew him to a U.S. Naval base in Japan on May 20, 2002. Secret Service were not noted. Most entries concerning Clinton did. One other flight possibly did not include agents, but part of the entry was illegible. That was on Nov. 9, 2003, from Hong Kong to Sichuan Province in China.
Clinton took off from PBIA in February and March 2002 to Miami International and JFK, respectively.
Flight logs don't indicate why any of the trips were taken.
A Clinton spokesperson said in 2019 that he knew "nothing" about the crimes Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida or the sex-trafficking crimes he was charged with that year.
Epstein's own relatives who live in Palm Beach County: Family aboard
Epstein flew family members several times, often to New York or nearby. His parents, Seymour and Paula, lived in a West Palm Beach condo.
Epstein and his brother, Mark, grew up on the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. Seymour worked for the New York Parks Department.
Mark, Jeffrey's younger brother, took at least one flight.
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Paula flew several times aboard Jeffrey's jets in the late 1990s and early 2000s, almost always between PBIA and Teterboro. Once she went to Westchester County Airport.
Paula held on to their West Palm Beach condo until she died in 2004. Seymour had passed in 1991.
Former Epstein girlfriend who was Miss Sweden, family also flew
Glenn and Eva Andersson Dubin, who have a waterfront home in Palm Beach, flew on Epstein's aircraft occasionally. Eva was Epstein's girlfriend for more than a decade before she married Glenn in 1994.
Glenn and Eva are philanthropists involved in New York and that's often where they flew, most often with their three girls in tow and the nannies.
Glenn is a venture capitalist and Eva is a physician who established the Dubin Breast Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. She had had breast cancer herself.
Eva testified for Epstein's next girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, in Maxwell's trial on sex-trafficking charges in December 2021. Maxwell was convicted. Eva said she saw no inappropriate conduct from Epstein.
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After Epstein had served his 13 months at the Palm Beach County Jail for pleading guilty to two prostitution-related felonies, Eva in 2009 famously told his probation officer that she was "100% comfortable" with him being around her girls at Thanksgiving dinner. The children were under 18 at the time.
The couple distanced themselves from Epstein after he was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in 2019.
Holly Baltz is the investigations editor at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane: Trump, Bill Clinton, Naomi Campbell
