In 2006, Palm Beach police were investigating the disgraced financier for allegedly sexually exploiting underage girls. The case was later turned over to federal prosecutors, who struck a controversial plea deal with Epstein in 2008 that included a non-prosecution agreement protecting him from more serious charges.

“We are not aware of any conclusive evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago,” Justice Department officials said in a statement to the BBC.

Asked about the reported call at a White House press briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said it “may or may not have happened in 2006. I don’t know the answer to that.”

“What President Trump has been saying is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a weirdo,” she said. “That remains true on this call. If it did happen, that would completely validate what President Trump has said from the beginning.”

The BBC has also contacted Wright for comment.

Trump and Epstein socialized and appeared in photos together in the 1990s, but the president and the White House repeatedly said he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes until cutting ties with him around 2004, several years before Epstein was first arrested.

Trump said their altercation occurred after he learned Epstein had been trying to “steal” his employees from Mar-a-Lago.

“When I heard about it, I told him, we don’t want you to take our people away,” Trump said in July. “He was fine but then he did it again and I said ‘get out of here’.”

Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday for recruiting teenage girls to sexually abuse Epstein, is testifying before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

During his testimony behind closed doors, Maxwell declined to answer questions Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said she invoked her right to remain silent on Fifth Amendment grounds.

Maxwell’s attorneys claim she is “fully prepared to speak honestly” if President Trump grants clemency.

Trump said he had not considered pardoning Maxwell.