Nick Confessore

Reporter for @NYTimes, staff writer at @NYTmag.
Also at @nickconfessore.bsky.social.

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

Read our story, with contributions from many @nytimes colleagues: 2/2 https://t.co/F0kPGxq2dl

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

NEW from @nytimes: A parade of the wealthy and powerful have said they weren’t close to Epstein.
But new documents reveal how leading business and political figures maintained enduring relationships with Epstein -- even after he became a convicted sex offender in 2008. 1/2

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

We also noticed just how much Trump’s explanations of his friendship with Epstein — and its end — had shifted. Epstein was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago for being inappropriate with a masseuse. Or with the daughter of a member. For poaching employees. Or for being “a creep.”

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

How Trump or his reps have characterized his relationship with Epstein:
“A lot of fun to be with”
“They did not socialize together”
A business acquaintance
“There was no relationship”
But our new @nytimes investigation reveals an intense, complicated friendship.🧵

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

The first public signs of a breach came in 2007, as Epstein was negotiating a plea deal. Page Six reported that he had been banned from Mar-a-Lago for soliciting “a masseuse about 18 years old.”
The item appeared to refer to Virginia Giuffre, who has said she was recruited from the Mar-a-Lago spa just shy of her 17th birthday.
But that happened back in 2000 -- when Epstein and Trump were still close.

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

A Trump spokeswoman did not respond to specific questions but denied our reporting wholesale, calling it “a stale regurgitation of decades-old false allegations.” You can read the full article here: https://t.co/LI9pEUM6dk

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

As Trump’s 2016 bid heated up, he and his aides made broad denials contradicted by pictures of the two at parties or Trump’s past praise.
“There was no relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump,” one told Fox News. “They were not friends, and they did not socialize together.”

[Aaron Blake @AaronBlake]

Trump on Epstein in 2019: "I wasn't a fan." "I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him.”

NYT today:

"Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other’s closest friend."

[Nick Confessore @nickconfessore]

NEW: "Don’s Best Friend": Documents and interviews reveal the intense, complicated relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency. https://t.co/y2MvsczdUE
A deep dive w/@JulieATate: