Trump named in explosive tip regarding Epstein’s death: ‘Authorized murder’

President Donald Trump was named in an explosive tip to the FBI regarding the 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department’s recent release of around 3.5 million files has revealed.

“Pretty major allegation,” wrote journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan Friday in a social media post on X, responding to the discovery of the FBI tip. “Weird that mainstream media journalists haven’t asked Trump about it, right?”

The tip was submitted in February of 2023 by Epstein’s own brother, Mark Epstein, and directly names Trump as potentially being involved in the death of his brother, which was ultimately ruled a suicide.

“Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in his jail cell,” Mark Epstein wrote in the tip. “I have reason to believe he was killed because he was about to name names. I believe [President] Trump authorized [his] murder.”

Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted child sex offender who was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, was found dead in a Manhattan city jail in August of 2019, his death immediately sparking questions alongside a federal investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death.

Jeffrey Epstein’s death was controversially ruled a suicide, but Mark Epstein started alleging that his brother was murdered in 2025. It wasn’t until the Justice Department’s release of around 3.5 million Epstein files last week, however, that Mark Epstein’s tip to the FBI was revealed.

In the tip, Mark Epstein encourages the FBI to contact him for further details. It was submitted to the FBI National Threat Operations Center, and passed along to a “special agent” whose name was redacted.

Trump had a long and well-documented friendship with Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s to early 2000s. In 2002, Trump called Jeffrey Epstein a "terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women,” many of whom “are on the younger side.” In 2017, Jeffrey Epstein said he was Trump’s “closest friend for ten years.”