Epstein's brother claims Trump delayed release of files as 'there's things in there he doesn't want people to see'

Mark Epstein, the brother of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has claimed that Donald Trump delayed the release of the Epstein files for an ‘obvious’ reason.

For months now, the US president has strongly opposed the release of the files, which document business dealings and associates of the disgraced financer, even branding the entire saga as a ‘hoax’.

However, on Monday he made a huge U-turn and said he would agree to release them following a successful Senate vote.

After passing both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on Wednesday, with the Department of Justice now given just 30 days to release the documents – which will be heavily redacted.

Speaking on Thursday about why he thinks Trump hadn’t released them sooner, Mark told CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront that he believed Trump had purposefully delayed releasing the files.

Jeffrey Epstein's brother has made allegations about the files (Davidoff Studios Photography / Contributor/ Getty Stock)

“Well, I think it’s an obvious question, not just for me,” he said. “It’s just there’s things in there he doesn’t want people to see. I mean, that... seems to be obvious.”

There is currently no evidence to support his claim, which appears to be entirely speculative.

In the same interview, Mark also highlighted the relationship between his late brother and Trump, as he alleges they were 'very good friends'.

“They say Donald was on Jeff’s plane like seven times, but I question, have they checked Donald’s flight logs from those days to see how many times Jeffrey was on his plane?" Mark said.

"I know Jeffrey told me on a number of occasions that he flew up or flew down with Donald. And Donald was in Jeffrey’s office quite a bit back in the 90s. They were good friends, everybody around knew that.”

Epstein also alleged that his brother had branded Trump 'a crook' before his death (Getty)

Mark even shared his opinion on why Trump and his brother had ended their friendship, as he explained that it was because Jeffrey had discovered Trump was a ‘crook’.

Trump has always maintained that he hadn’t spoken to Epstein in several years prior to his death.

However, Mark alleges that Trump contacted his brother shortly after his election win 2016, when he expressed his own disbelief about having won the presidency.

“Jeffrey told me that it was after the election, Trump called him and it was sort of like ‘Can you believe this?’ Because nobody believed Trump was going to win. Trump was sort of surprised himself that he won,” Mark said.