NBC News this morning released a video of President Donald Trump and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was recently charged with sex trafficking of minors, at a party in 1992, with Trump in one moment slapping a woman’s rear and in another, leering at women with Epstein.
Trump, then approaching the height of his (inflated) celebrity as a real estate mogul, pointed to a woman and tells Epstein, “She’s hot.” Moments later, he said something that causes Epstein to double over with laughter.
The footage was picked up by a number of national outlets, including The Washington Post, CNN and Vanity Fair, to name a few, as the allegations of Epstein’s ephebophilia mount following years of accusations. NBC crews were at the party 27 years ago to film a segment on Trump for a show hosted by Faith Daniels.
Less remarked upon is the brief appearance in the video of someone who’s hard to miss: 6-foot-11 Tom McMillen, a University of Maryland basketball legend and 13-year NBA veteran who was nearing the end of his career in Congress at the time the video was filmed.
McMillen, who represented the old 4th Congressional District in Congress for three terms but lost in 1992 after the map was redrawn, can be seen at roughly the 3:45 mark in the above clip, walking up to Trump’s Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, with a woman and Epstein.
He shakes hands with Trump and introduces the woman to the future president. As the guests enter the party, Trump pulls McMillen aside to say something.
Reached by email, McMillen, now serving as president and CEO of the Lead1 Association, a group representing athletic directors at Division I schools, said the event was an NFL-themed party ahead of a game between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills used as promotion for Trump’s club. The cheerleading squads from both teams were there.
He said there were hundreds of guests, including many couples (he said he brought a date).
The Terps legend said he knew Epstein “a bit.”
“I would see him at events years ago,” wrote McMillen, who served on the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents from 2007 to 2015.
But that stopped two decades ago.
“I haven’t seen or spoken to Epstein in 20 years,” wrote McMillen, adding he is “appalled by the accusations.”
He did not respond to follow-up questions about how long he knew Epstein and if he considered him a friend.
Following a series of investigative stories by The Miami Herald, Epstein was arrested earlier this month and charged with luring dozens of girls, some as young as 14, to his Manhattan mansion and sexually assaulting them between 2002 and 2005. He also asked some of them to recruit other young girls, prosecutors said.
In 2008, the hedge fund manager avoided federal prosecution after accepting a plea deal, negotiated by Alex Acosta, who was the U.S. Attorney in Miami at the time, to plead guilty to two state charges of prostitution. Epstein served 13 months in prison.
Acosta, who served as labor secretary in the Trump administration since 2017, resigned last Friday after the plea deal received intense scrutiny.
Trump has recently said he, like many people in Palm Beach, Florida, knew Epstein, but never liked him.
“I had a falling out with him. I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”
Previously, however, he referred to Epstein as a “terrific guy” in a New York profile that ran in 2002.
Trump added: “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.”
Democrat leadership in America in 2019 haven’t accomplished a thing. I’m truly convinced that their entire agenda in about investigating and harrasing President Trump. If it’s going to be a hate fest for Mr Trump fine but stop with the anti Israel rhetoric and stop with the continuous slander. You were voted in to represent your constituents, so do so already.