'I didn't accept': Epstein reportedly bragged about rejecting Trump White House job offer
Just days after President Donald Trump's first election victory in 2016, he reportedly called his longtime friend, convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and offered him a job in his administration.
That's according to Epstein's former butler, Valdson Vieira Cotrin, who gave a wide-ranging interview to the UK-based Telegraph about his 18 years working for Epstein. Cotrin — who managed Epstein's Paris estate — recalled a conversation the two had while he was picking up Epstein at the airport upon his arrival in France.
"A few days after Trump’s election, Mr. Epstein arrived in Paris on Monday or Tuesday, and I went to pick him up at the airport,” Cotrin told the paper. “He said, ‘Valdson, you saw that Trump is the new U.S. president?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘I saw it on the news in Paris."
READ MORE: 'I was kidding myself': Lawyer regrets burying Trump's alleged affairs
‘Well, Trump asked me to work for him in the new government,’” Epstein said, according to Cotrin. “I said, ‘Congratulations. I’m happy for you,’ in my bad English. He said, ‘No, I didn’t accept.’”
Cotrin went on to say that he didn't believe the official explanation that his former boss died by suicide in a prison cell in 2019, saying he "loved life too much." And he told the Telegraph he was in fear for his life due not only to Epstein's death, but also because of the 2022 death of Jean-Luc Brunel — who medical examiners say also died by suicide in his prison cell — and because of the April 2025 death of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide at the age of 41.
Giuffre's name resurfaced in recent weeks following Trump's comment during a press gaggle that Epstein "stole" her from Mar-a-Lago when she was a 17 year-old spa attendant. While Trump said that Epstein's poaching of Mar-a-Lago employees led to their falling out, author and journalist Barry Levine said Epstein was still a paying member of Mar-a-Lago in 2007 — seven years after Giuffre was recruited by Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and a year after Epstein had been charged with child trafficking.
Maxwell was transferred last week from FCI Gainesville in Florida to FCI Bryan in Texas, which is considered a relatively cushy federal prison that houses nonviolent white-collar criminals. A rule prohibiting violent offenders like Maxwell from serving their sentences in facilities like Bryan was reportedly waived in order to allow her transfer to go through.
READ MORE: 'Even MAGA people can smell it': Critic says Trump moves show he 'thinks his base is stupid'
Click here to read Cotrin's full interview with the Telegraph.