Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein‘s real estate developer, Mark, has offered his own insights into the information contained in a trove of government files on his sibling, hours before President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving the release of the documents.
Mark, 71, who began his career as an artist before pivoting into property development, spoke to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Nov. 19, shortly before Trump revealed in a post on his social media website Truth Social that he had “signed the bill to release the Epstein files.”
During his appearance on the show—which he phoned into—Mark addressed several significant sources of speculation surrounding the Epstein files and Trump’s apparent reluctance to release them, alleging that there are “things in there [the president] doesn’t want people to see.”
Addressing Trump’s personal relationship with his brother, Mark refuted several claims made by the president about his dealings with Epstein, including that he had thrown the financier out of his Mar-a-Lago club because he was “a sick pervert.”
Mark alleged that he had listened to recordings of interviews that took place between his brother and former Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon, in which Epstein “clearly stated that he stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook.”
“That’s a direct quote from Jeffrey,” he added.
Furthermore, Mark challenged Trump’s claim that he had not spoken to Epstein since 2004, claiming that the president had phoned his brother not long after claiming victory in the 2016 election.
“Jeffrey told me that it was after the election, Trump called him and it was sort of like ‘Can you believe this?’ Because nobody believed Trump was going to win. Trump was sort of surprised himself that he won,” he said.
“They used to fly in each other’s planes,” Mark added. “They say Donald was on Jeff’s plane like, seven times, but have they checked Donald’s flight logs from those days to see how many times Jeffrey was on his plane?
“I know Jeffrey told me on a number of occasions that he flew up or flew down with Donald… they were good friends, everybody around knew that.”
In an additional interview with The Advocate, Mark also addressed suggestions that a character referred to only as “Bubba” in emails sent by his brother about Trump is in fact former President Bill Clinton, insisting that there is no truth to these rumors.
He declined to reveal any further information about the individual, only stating via his spokesperson that Bubba is “a private individual who is not a public figure.”
The interviews mark the latest in a line of public appearances that Mark has made in recent months to discuss the allegations against his brother—who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019, while he was awaiting trial on multiple charges of sex trafficking.
Prior to his death, Epstein had pled not guilty to the charges levied against him and had been preparing, according to Mark, to put up “what would have been the highest bail in the United States’ history” in a bid to secure his freedom.
Epstein’s July 2019 arrest shone a very bright spotlight on his relationship with his brother, who was his only remaining close relative and who offered to put up a $100,000 Florida condo as collateral in his sibling’s bail plea.
Mark’s personal fortune and business dealings were the focus of many news articles, including an August 2019 piece published in The Wall Street Journal, in which the source of his wealth was described as a “mystery.”
The piece called attention to one significant real estate investment that linked the brothers professionally: a 200-unit condo building on the Upper East Side of New York, which had been purchased from Victoria’s Secret mogul—and Epstein’s former client—Les Wexner.
That building had been purchased by “a former affiliate” of Epstein’s investment firm, J. Epstein & Co., for which Mark had previously served as president.
However, when approached by Crain’s New York Business in July 2019, Mark denied that there was any business connection between his brother’s investments and his own real estate dealings.
Those real estate dealings developed later in life for Mark, who had originally begun a career as an artist, after attending the private New York-based art school, Cooper Union.
Like his brother, Mark spent much of his live in New York, having been raised in Sea Gate, Brooklyn.
According to The Daily Beast, Mark launched a “business silk-screening T-shirts” as one of his first ventures and even tried his hand at modeling, per Business Insider.
However in 1990, he turned to real estate investment with the launch of his own company, Ossa Properties, which once owned close to 500 renter-occupied apartments spread across four co-op projects in New York City, The New York Times reported in 1993.
One of the properties that Ossa had a majority stake in also had very close ties to Epstein: an apartment building at 301 East 66th St., which Mark’s brother allegedly used to house associates, girlfriends, employees, and even businesses.
The building is located just a few blocks away from a lavish Upper East Side townhouse that once served as Epstein’s primary residence in the city—and which recently underwent an extensive renovation, four years after it was purchased by a former Goldman Sachs executive who vowed to completely make over the dwelling “physically and spiritually.”
According to the New York Post, the Upper East Side property’s owner, Michael Daffey, has completed a million-dollar remodel of the seven-story townhouse, with images obtained by Realtor.com® suggesting that he has already begun hosting events inside the historic abode.
Photos taken outside the home on Oct. 18 show several workers removing what appear to be boxes of staging equipment from the dwelling, indicating that a large-scale event had been held there the previous night.
It is unclear whether the event was hosted by Daffey, who purchased the townhouse for the bargain price of $51 million back in March 2021, two years after Epstein died by suicide inside a New York City detention center, where he was awaiting trial, having been charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking.
When Daffey purchased the home—which had originally been listed for $88 million—his spokesperson said that the former financier planned to carry out a “complete makeover,” which city records indicate cost a total of $925,000, per the Post.
However, while he may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to remove all evidence of Epstein, the dwelling’s sordid history appears inescapable, having once again been thrust into the headlines amid the publication of late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre‘s posthumous memoir, “Nobody’s Girl.”
In the book, which was published Oct. 21, Giuffre made several horrifying allegations about the torture she claimed she was subjected to inside the home, which is now understood to be worth upward of $66 million.
Giuffre, who died by suicide on April 25, accused both Epstein and his madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, of subjecting her to sadomasochistic abuse inside a massage room in the home, which she referred to as “The Dungeon,” alleging that she was chained up and beaten until she “prayed [she] would black out.”
She also described some of the more sinister design details in the home, including a “blood red carpets” and a taxidermy tiger, as well as a “hidden black staircase” that was adorned with “carved eyeballs that stared at you as you gripped them.”
“The message was clear: ‘We’re always watching you,'” she wrote.
Additionally, she claimed that the property had been outfitted with an intricate camera system that spread to almost every single room of the home.
Speaking to the Post, several neighbors and fellow Upper East Side residents expressed their horror at the idea of ever living inside a home with such a horrifying history, with one, Henry Francois, describing the dwelling as a “dark, dark, weird place.”
“Would I live inside? No, I don’t think so,” he added. “Not that I believe in ghosts, it’s just terrible. It’s like when you walk around at night and have a weird feeling. You constantly feel on edge.”
Still, Daffey appears to have done his utmost to completely eradicate all evidence of Epstein inside the townhouse, which was originally constructed in 1910 and is located just a few minutes’ walk from Central Park.
The outlet reports that renovations have been carried out across five of the home’s seven stories, including the demolition of multiple walls in order to open up each of the floors.
The so-called “dungeon” that Giuffre refers to appears to have been one of the rooms that had its walls torn down in order to add more space to an existing bedroom.
Epstein’s kitchen has also been enlarged by knocking through into his former office, as well as a breakfast room and bathroom.
All of Epstein’s chosen light fixtures, wallpapers, and other design details—including crown molding and built-ins—have also been stripped from the property.
In the mid-1940s, the home became an extension of the St. Claire Hospital, before being transformed into the Birch Wathen School two decades later.
Epstein is believed that have purchased the property in 1989 for $13.2 million.
In addition to the New York City dwelling, the late financier also owned an extraordinary property in Palm Beach, FL. It was demolished in 2020 by developer Todd Glaser, who paid $19 million for the mansion in March of that year.
He then sold the vacant lot to venture capitalist David Skok for $25.8 million in 2022.