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Jeffrey Epstein Fashion and Premiere
Donald and Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at the
Mar-a-Lago in 2000. From Davidoff Studios/Getty Images.

Ghislaine Maxwell saw Donald Trump as a vital connection for her then
boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein early on. In the late �80s, she had worked for
her father, British media mogul Robert Maxwell, in London, first at
Pergamon Press, then in another division that specialized in corporate
gifts. Thinking Trump would be a great catch as a client for her venture,
she realized she had a terrific connection through her father, who knew
Trump fairly well as a rival, bidding unsuccessfully to buy the New York
Post, inviting him to party aboard the Lady Ghislaine, and attending
extravagant society soirees.

Naively assuming that her father would appreciate her initiative,
Ghislaine Maxwell asked him to call Trump. However, according to Nicholas
Davies�s Death of a Tycoon, even though she was his favorite daughter,
Robert Maxwell erupted. �Have you got your bum in your head?� he said.
�Why the fuck would Donald Trump want to waste his time seeing you with
your crappy gifts when he has a multimillion-dollar business to run?�
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But her father was wrong. In the end, Trump spent plenty of time with
Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein. In fact, he fit in quite well with them.
Arrivistes all�be it Epstein�s Coney Island, Trump�s Queens, or Robert
Maxwell�s Eastern European shtetl�they had all come from the wrong side of
the tracks. And at some point in their lives, Robert Maxwell, Trump, and
Epstein all had ties to foreign intelligence agencies, arms dealers, and
the sex trade.

It was a world of unimaginable decadence. The epicenter of the operation
was Epstein�s enormously opulent Upper East Side townhouse. As a dwelling,
it was less a home than a deliberately, extravagantly staged showcase, a
calculated spectacle that declared to the world that Epstein, a college
dropout from a middle-class Brooklyn family, had been embraced securely in
the bosom of the powers that be.

Epstein�s notorious �black book� of contacts, compiled largely by
Ghislaine Maxwell, shows the rarefied circles in which he traveled�Nobel
laureates, heads of states, British royals, Wall Street power brokers, and
A-listers in every glamour profession. Trump had no fewer than 16 phone
numbers beside his name in Epstein�s black book.

Trump later recalled Epstein in those days. �Terrific guy,� he famously
told New York magazine. �He�s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said
that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the
younger side. No doubt about it�Jeffrey enjoys his social life.�

No one was more dazzled by the glamour of the Trump�Maxwell�Epstein axis
than former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, who was so
hypnotized by its lavishness that he professed not to see anything wrong
with it. In fact, it was something you aspired to. �In those days, if you
didn�t know Trump and you didn�t know Epstein, you were a nobody,�
Dershowitz, who later served on Epstein�s defense team, told The New York
Times.

Within the context of their highly transactional relationships, Trump�s
friendship with Epstein struck onlookers as a significant mutually
beneficial connection. In the �90s, Trump needed friends. He had just gone
belly-up in Atlantic City. In addition to helping Trump get back on his
feet, Epstein seemed to be a latter-day Hugh Hefner�surrounded by gorgeous
young women, bespoke private planes, and spectacular residences, all while
Ghislaine Maxwell orchestrated a never-ending series of movable feasts at
which Epstein would entertain and play courtier to presidents, movie
stars, brutal dictators, world-class scientists, Wall Street billionaires,
and the like. And he�d have sex with two, three, or more young girls
almost every day.

Trump fit right in. Epstein and Maxwell invited him everywhere�and Trump
reciprocated. At one highly selective party in 1992 at Trump�s Mar-a-Lago
resort in Palm Beach, The New York Times reported, no fewer than 28
attractive young women were flown in to participate in a calendar-girl
competition as entertainment. The organizer, George Houraney, who ran
American Dream Enterprise, a small Florida company that staged a calendar-
girl contest and other events, was appalled to learn that there were only
two male guests�Trump and Epstein.

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�Donald, this is supposed to be a party with VIPs,� Houraney told Trump,
according to the Times. �You�re telling me it�s you and Epstein? � I know
Jeff really well, I can�t have him going after younger girls.�

But Trump ignored Houraney�s warning and plowed ahead anyway. Houraney�s
longtime girlfriend Jill Harth later told The New York Times that Trump
groped her nonstop at a business meeting around the same time. �He was
relentless,� Harth said, describing how Trump took the couple to dinner,
sat beside Harth, and put his hands up her skirt all the way to her
crotch. �I didn�t know how to handle it. I would go away from him and say
I have to go to the restroom. It was the escape route.�

Trump was often the center of Maxwell�s attention, and women who entered
Trump�s orbit sometimes ended up being associated with both Trump and
Epstein, spending part of their time living in a Trump Tower condo and
part in Florida, at Mar-a-Lago or one of Epstein�s homes.

Among them was Russian model and beauty-pageant contestant Anna Malova,
whose journey from the world of beauty pageants and modeling to Trump�s
Mar-a-Lago and Epstein�s island retreat is highly suggestive in terms of
how Epstein and his associates began manipulating young women.

In the early �90s, before coming to the United States, Malova had placed
well in a number of beauty pageants�coming in second in Miss Russia 1993
and winning the 1994 Miss Baltic Sea title later that year. In 1995 she
left Moscow, spent six weeks learning English in St. Petersburg (Florida,
not Russia), and was profiled in The Tampa Tribune as �reigning Miss
Russia.� And before long, she met Donald Trump. Notwithstanding the fact
that Trump was still married to his second wife, Marla Maples, Anna moved
into a 30th-floor condo in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

There, according to an item in the New York Post, her lavish
accommodations were taken care of �courtesy of an unidentified sugar
daddy.� Not long afterward, in October 1996, Trump bought three beauty
pageants from ITT Corp.: Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA.

A little more than a year later, in 1998, Malova competed in the Miss
Universe pageant representing Russia. According to the Honolulu Star-
Bulletin, Malova �faltered badly� when she was asked to compare Russia�s
television and culture with Ghana�s. Malova was stumped. �She pulled a
Chernobyl,� one observer told the outlet. �She�s history.�

Malova made the finals anyway, but, as New York magazine noticed, there
was an anomaly in the very fact she had even entered the pageant. �Oddly,
Anna Malova was allowed to compete in this year�s Miss Universe pageant
[1998] even though she was Miss Russia in 1995,� the magazine reported.
�According to beauty-world sources, it�s not a coincidence that the
stunning Slav, who wound up a finalist in last month�s event, is a friend
of Donald Trump, co-owner of the event. Did the Donald pull a few strings
on an old friend�s behalf? � While the Miss Universe camp insists Malova
won the Russian event honestly, Malova�s agent says, �I don�t think she
was Miss Russia this year. She was Miss Russia several years ago.��

When the magazine asked for documentation that Malova had won the title a
second time, the Miss Universe pageant headquarters declined to furnish
it. Trump could not be reached for comment, but a spokesperson told New
York, �I haven�t heard about Trump giving any preferential treatment to
Malova.�

In the meantime, however, she spent time with both Trump and Epstein.
Flight logs released by a federal judge in New York in 2019 showed that in
February 1999, Malova, then 27, flew on board Epstein�s Gulfstream, the
so-called Lolita Express, with Maxwell and Prince Andrew, from Epstein�s
Little St. James (a.k.a. �Pedophile Island�) back to Florida.

Over the next two decades, Malova cut an erratic figure. She was arrested
in 2010 on charges of criminal possession of narcotics, forgery, and
criminal impersonation of a physician. She also appeared in gossip columns
as the love interest of men ranging from comedian Garry Shandling to hedge
fund billionaire George Soros, more than 40 years her senior.
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