A New York author and journalist has released audio tapes that appear to detail how Donald Trump had a close social relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which he has long denied.

The tapes, released as part of the Fire and Fury podcast series by Michael Wolff, author of three books about Trump’s first term and 2020 bid for a second, and James Truman, former NME journalist and editor-in-chief of Condé Nast, contain Epstein’s thoughts about the inner workings of the former US president’s inner circle.

Wolff says the recordings were made during a 2017 conversation with Epstein about writing his biography. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges two years later. Despite his crimes, the wealthy financier found himself at the heart of a social circle of the rich and powerful in the US and abroad that included many household names.

Wolff claims the excerpt tape is just a fraction of some “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and his long, deep relationship with Donald Trump.”

Trump once praised Epstein in a 2002 conversation with New York magazine, calling him “a great guy” and alluding to his interest in women “on the young side.” But he claimed the pair feuded for 15 years before Epstein was convicted in Florida on prostitution charges in 2008.

“I was not a fan of him, I can tell you that,” the president said after Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.

The Fire and Fury tapes show Epstein recalling how then-President Trump played his circle against each other. “His people fight each other and then he poisons the well outside,” he says.

The author names Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway as among the acolytes and officials whom Trump played against each other like courtiers in a competitive court.

“He’ll tell 10 people, ‘Bannon is an asshole’ and ‘Priebus isn’t doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth – what do you think?’

“'(JPMorgan Chase CEO) Jamie Dimon says you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I talked to (financier) Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson. ”

Epstein continues his discussion of Trump’s approach to management: “So Kelly(anne) – even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband – Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon, “You know I really want to keep you, but Kellyanne hates you.”

Commenting on the podcast, Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said: “Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely makes up lies to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics” and accused the author of “bizarre to make statements’. false defamation” and engaging in “blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris.”

Wolffs claims on the podcast that he became an “outlet” for Epstein “to express his disbelief at someone whose sins he knew so well, and that this person was then actually elected president.” Epstein was completely preoccupied with Trump, and I think, honestly, afraid of him.”

In the broadest sense, Wolff wants to paint a picture of two wealthy men from the eighties whose shared interests lie in money, women and status. He describes how they hung out together in New York.

The Guardian recently revealed that in 1993, Epstein had taken Stacey Williams, a Sports Illustrated model and his girlfriend of two months, to Trump’s Fifth Avenue penthouse and allowed or perhaps even encouraged the former US president to grope her in what she described as a ‘twisted game’. ”. Trump has denied Williams’ claim.

Wolff said in the podcast: “Here are these two guys, both driven by the need to do whatever they want to women: dominance, submission and entertainment. And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”