Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 1997. By Davidoff Studios/Getty Images.

Perhaps the most revealing commentary Donald Trump has offered on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who pleaded not guilty this week to sex trafficking and conspiracy, occurred in late February 2015, onstage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Trump, then flirting with a presidential run, was fielding softballs from Fox News host Sean Hannity when a lightning round of questions turned to a favorite topic: Bill Clinton. “Nice guy, Trump said. “Got a lot of problems coming up, in my opinion, with the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein,” he added, seemingly veering off topic. “Lot of problems.”

In fact, Epstein was then very much top of mind for Trump, who had his own history with the registered sex offender. Over the previous several weeks, the National Enquirer had published a string of stories about Epstein, including a “world exclusive” interview with one of his accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said in court documents that Epstein forced her to have sex with him at his Upper East Side home. She told the tabloid that Epstein paid her to have sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew, one of an expansive retinue of high-flying elites who enjoyed Epstein’s company and took advantage of his private jet. (Buckingham Palace has denied the allegations.) Another was Clinton, who the Enquirer reported had traveled with Epstein’s assistant on his plane, and was at Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean. (Clinton denies ever traveling to Little St. James Island, but has confirmed that he traveled with Epstein several times in 2002 and 2003, including trips to Africa in connection with the Clinton Foundation. In her interview with the Enquirer, Giuffre said she had seen Clinton around, but that she never saw him involved with women.)

Trump had been following the story closely. In the week or so leading up to his CPAC speech, David Pecker, who owned the Enquirer until it was sold in ruin earlier this year, visited Trump on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, bringing along an issue with a Prince Andrew and Epstein-related cover, according to people familiar with the meeting. Pecker, of course, was in the business of protecting Trump. An early supporter of his presidential campaign, Pecker has helped “catch and kill” at least two stories involving the real estate mogul and women who claimed to have had affairs with him. (Trump has denied the affairs.)

Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who would later go to prison in part for his role in these hush money schemes, was in the room when Pecker sat down. Pecker, he later told me, used to send him articles and issues before they were published so that he and Trump could read them. After the meeting Trump called in Sam Nunberg, then a Trump Organization employee, who saw Pecker leaving Trump’s office. “Michael was sitting in there when I came in, and the issue of the National Enquirer with the pictures of Prince Andrew was on his desk,” Nunberg recalled. “He said not to tell anyone, but that Pecker had just been there and had brought the issue with him. Trump said that Pecker had told him that the pictures of Clinton that Epstein had from his island were worse.” (Cohen, speaking by phone from the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, corroborated Nunberg’s version of the events, though he declined to add any additional information about the meeting.)