Did trump and jeffry epstein have lunch in 2015 before his campaign

1. What the informant memo says and where it came from

A confidential source told FBI agents in November 2017 that Epstein and Trump were “very close” and that Trump “had just been to Epstein’s property for lunch” in the spring of 2015, a claim summarized in media accounts after batches of Justice Department files were released ^{[2] [1]}; that memo is what IBTimes UK and progressive outlets flagged as a “bombshell” because it directly contradicts Trump’s long-standing public claim that he had not spoken to Epstein for roughly 15 years ^{[1] [2]}.

2. What the broader document releases show about Trump and Epstein’s ties

The Justice Department’s final tranche of roughly three million pages contains thousands of references to Trump—interviews, notes and mentions in emails—and shows Trump as a recurring figure in the Epstein material, but reporters who sifted the release emphasize that the files are peppered with references rather than presenting clear, standalone evidence of recent social meetings between the two men in 2015 ^{[3] [4] [5]}.

3. Corroboration (or lack of it) in contemporaneous records

While the archive includes items showing other prominent figures visited Epstein or corresponded about meetings—emails documenting lunches on Epstein’s island and invitations to fundraisers, for example involving Howard Lutnick and others—the publicly reported files do not, as of these media accounts, include an indisputable contemporaneous email, photo, calendar entry or travel record that verifies a Trump lunch at Epstein’s property in spring 2015, and several outlets note that references to Trump in the files are often in interview notes or unverified tips rather than documentary proof ^{[6] [7] [4] [8]}.

4. Competing narratives and official denials

Trump has repeatedly said he cut ties with Epstein years earlier and suggested a long estrangement—statements highlighted by outlets noting the inconsistency between his public line and some documents or witness notes—but the Justice Department and senior officials said they found no credible information in the files “to merit further investigation” of the president on sexual misconduct tied to Epstein, per reporting that cites DOJ statements ^{[3] [2]}. Media coverage also records that some people named in the files have disputed meeting claims or offered qualifying statements, underscoring the uneven quality of evidence across millions of pages ^{[8] [6]}.

5. How journalists and analysts are treating the allegation

News organizations that examined the files treat the spring‑2015 lunch claim as an allegation drawn from an informant’s memo and place it in the context of many other references to Trump in the trove; outlets ranging from The New York Times to PBS and Reuters emphasize the abundance of mentions but caution that mentions are not the same as independent documentary confirmation of a specific 2015 meeting ^{[3] [4] [6]}. At the same time, some commentators and outlet editors argue the new disclosures increase scrutiny on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein even if they fall short of definitive proof of the alleged 2015 lunch ^{[9] [5]}.

6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting

Based on the reporting and the document excerpts cited above, the public record consists of an informant allegation recorded by the FBI and numerous references to Trump across the Epstein files, but reporters have not pointed to a corroborating contemporaneous documentary record that definitively proves Trump lunched with Epstein in spring 2015; the files raise questions and contradictions that merit follow‑up, but they do not supply an incontrovertible smoking‑gun of that specific lunch as of the published accounts ^{[1] [2] [3] [6]}. The limitation of current reporting is that absence of documented corroboration in the released files is not proof the lunch never occurred; it is simply the responsible conclusion the available documents support ^[3].