Donald Trump Associates and Ethics

Newly released Justice Department 'Epstein files' reviewed by CBS News show that Tom Barrack — now U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and long one of Donald Trump’s closest confidants — maintained regular, friendly contact with Jeffrey Epstein for years after Epstein’s 2008 sex‑offense conviction. A CBS analysis of more than 100 emails and text messages between the two depicts ongoing social and professional ties, including invitations to private residences, introductions to high‑level figures like Palantir’s Peter Thiel, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin, and discussions of business opportunities. The correspondence begins as early as September 2009 with Barrack offering personal support shortly after Epstein left jail and continues through the years when Barrack became a key fundraiser for Trump’s 2016 campaign, chaired the inaugural committee, advised the White House on the Middle East and then returned in Trump’s second term as a senior diplomat. Epstein appears at times to see Barrack as a potential channel to Trump, repeatedly urging him to move conversations onto encrypted apps whose records are not in the release, though CBS says there is no evidence in the documents that Barrack passed Epstein’s messages to Trump or that Barrack knew of ongoing criminal activity. The revelations deepen the picture of how deeply Epstein remained woven into elite political and financial circles well after his first conviction, and they will sharpen congressional and public scrutiny of how thoroughly Trump’s current appointees were vetted given their documented proximity to Epstein.