US President-elect Donald Trump's legal team has found evidence that his top adviser demanded fees from potential candidates to promote them to positions in the new administration, The New York Times reports, citing five sources, UNN reports.
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We are talking about Boris Epstein, who proposed his candidacy for the post of special representative for the settlement of the war in Ukraine.
According to WP, Trump has ordered an internal investigation into Epstein. The report claims that Epstein approached candidates, promising advocacy before the president in case of regular payments for consultations.
In particular, Epstein extorted money from Scott Bessent, whom Trump recently chose as his nominee for Treasury Secretary. According to the review, Epstein met with Bessent in February, at a time when it was widely known that he was interested in the Treasury Secretary position, and offered between $30,000 and $40,000 per month to “promote” Bessent.
Bessent reportedly declined. He also did not participate in another attempt by Epstein, described in the report, to get him to invest in a three-on-three basketball league, but played along so as not to offend such a seemingly powerful figure in Trump's world, WP notes.
Bessent then reportedly called Epstein on November 14 to see if he was criticizing Trump in front of people around him, the review said. Epstein told Bessent that it was “too late” to hire him and that he was “Boris Epstein,” with a swear word between the two names. He then suggested that he was hiring him for consulting.
Трамп обрав нового кандидата на посаду міністра фінансів США23.11.24, 05:09
The second person mentioned in the review was a defense contractor from whom Epstein demanded $100,000 per month. The report states that Epstein portrayed his own hiring as “do or die” for this person's prospects, as stated in the review. The contractor did not hire Epstein and fears retaliation, the report said.
The document ends with the words that Epstein's closeness to Mr. Trump should be “terminated.
In a statement released on Monday evening, Epstein said: “I am honored to work for President Trump and his team. These fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from making America great again.
Donald Trump has already reacted to the situation . He stated: “I think every president has people around them who are trying to make money on the side. It's unfortunate, but it happens. But no one who works for me in any capacity should be looking to make money.”
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Epstein was born in 1982 in Moscow. In 1993, his family immigrated to the United States. During Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Epstein was a senior adviser to the campaign. Afterward, Epstein became a special assistant in the Trump administration.