President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on April 18.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Since the indictment in New York of financier Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges this week, decades worth of rich and powerful friends have been running for the hills, trying to distance themselves from the man who stands accused of sexual encounters with underage girls as young as 14. Former President Bill Clinton released a statement on his relationship with the disgraced financier. So did current President Donald Trump, who distanced himself from Epstein, who happened to be given a sweetheart deal in 2008 by then-U.S. attorney in Miami Alexander Acosta, who is now Trump’s labor secretary. The New York Times, on Wednesday, analyzed the Trump-Epstein friendship, which had eroded over the years, and uncovered a jaw-dropping anecdote about a party at Mar-a-Lago for which Trump had two-dozen women flown in for a “calendar girl” competition.
Florida businessman George Houraney said he was the one who fulfilled Trump’s request in 1992 for the beautiful women to attend a VIP party at the Trump property. “I arranged to have some contestants fly in,” Houraney told the Times in an interview this week. “At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein.” That the party wasn’t really a party at all surprised Houraney. “I said, ‘Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You’re telling me it’s you and Epstein?’ ” Houraney recalled. “I said, ‘Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can’t have him going after younger girls.’ ” Houraney told Trump that he had “pretty much had to ban Jeff from my events” but said “Trump didn’t care about that.”
