Trump listed as witness in upcoming Palm Beach Epstein trial, but involvement deemed peripheral

Wealthy Palm Beacher Jeffrey Epstein in Palm Beach County Circuit Court in 2008 to plead guilty to criminal charges him sexual massages. (Uma Sanghvi/The Palm Beach Post) Updated: 3:43 p.m. Friday, May 12, 2017 | Posted: 2:45 p.m. Friday, May 12, 2017 PALM BEACH — President Donald Trump is a shadowy, but ever-present, figure in the never-ending saga of billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mar-a-Lago, the commander-in-chief’s private-club-turned-southern-White- House in Palm Beach, was the backdrop for Epstein’s introduction to one of his dozens of teenage victims, according to court records. In a short-lived lawsuit that Trump decried as “categorically false,” a California woman last year sued Trump and Epstein in federal court in New York City, claiming the two business tycoons raped her when she was 13 years old. And Trump is on a star-studded witness list for an upcoming trial in Palm Beach County Circuit Court that attorney Jack Scarola promises will be the first public airing of Epstein’s lurid lifestyle. But, Scarola acknowledges, it is unlikely the president will be part of what Scarola promises will be a salacious trial. Scarola claims Epstein sued attorney Brad Edwards in an effort to intimidate and punish the lawyer for representing some of Epstein’s victims. While Epstein dropped his lawsuit against Edwards, who has also represented clients in a lawsuit against Trump, the malicious prosecution suit against Epstein will likely go to trial in the fall, Scarola said. When Scarola put Trump on the witness list in August, he said he never imagined the business scion and former television star would soon occupy the Oval Office. The legal battle he would have to launch to get a sitting president to testify simply isn’t worth it, Scarola said. Moreover, while there is a lot of smoke around Trump’s relationship with Epstein, there appears to be little fire, so far, Scarola said. “Based on all available public records, Trump’s involvement is peripheral,” he HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022990