The Onion officially gives up!

[SunSeeker]

43. At the time Trump informed on Epstein, the criminals were not Trump's donors yet, so he had no reason to protect them.

The first prosecution of Epstein began right after he and Trump had their falling out over a 2004 real estate deal. Epstein, who wanted the Florida property Trump scooped up, had threatened to sue Trump over the shady machinations Trump used in scooping up the property out from under Epstein.

Trump was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time of his property purchase and it would have been next to impossible for him to get a loan from a bank at that time, yet somehow he came up with $41.35 million to purchase the property. He turned around and sold the property to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev in 2008 for over $50 million more than he bought it for, strongly indicating it was a Russian money laundering operation all along. This ugly info on Trump would have come out in Epstein’s lawsuit. A child sex trafficking investigation would blunt Epstein’s credibility, and distract him from filing a lawsuit against Trump altogether. 

The investigation of Epstein began in 2005 and led to his arrest and indictment on a state charge in July 2006.  The case was concluded with that controversial Acosta plea deal in June 2008, where Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges and served only 13 months of an 18-month sentence. Federal prosecutors secretly agreed not to file their own charges. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2025/07/08/jeffrey-epstein-timeline-florida-case-led-to-15-years-of-sex-abuse/84510353007/#:~:text=Epstein%20pleads%20guilty%20to%20the,he's%20back%20in%2024%20hours

Looks like the criminals had their own ability to protect themselves from the prosecution in 2005-2008, they didn't need Trump.