Inquiry into Trump lawyer’s consulting push risks undercutting signature ‘drain the swamp’ pledge

One of Donald Trump’s closest advisers Boris Epshteyn solicited political candidates, a defense contractor and at least one potential Cabinet nominee for lucrative consulting contracts at the same time he was being paid by the Trump campaign and advising the president-elect on legal matters, nominations and political communications, according to interviews and documents reviewed by Just the News.

One of those who was pitched by Epshteyn for both a consulting contract and an investment opportunity was Scott Bessent, the hedge fund manager named Friday night by Trump as his nominee for Treasury secretary. Bessent rejected the overtures and eventually, when asked, reported concerns about them to the Trump transition team, including Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Trump late last week ordered an internal inquiry into the consulting arrangements of Ephsteyn and other contractors to be conducted by lawyer David Warrington with the results to be delivered to his incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, Just the News has learned.

Warrington served as general counsel for the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee and as counsel for the 2016 Trump Campaign to the Credentials, Platform, and Rules Committees at the Republican National Convention.

Trump: “I make these decisions on my own, period.”

The inquiry threatens to undercut one of Trump’s signature issues of “draining the swamp” of Washington's special interests because of the questions it is raising about influence efforts inside his own Mar-a-Lago empire.

In a brief interview with Just the News, Trump said he was unaware that any staffer on his payroll was soliciting consulting fees from people seeking jobs or endorsements from him and would not condone such behavior. “I suppose every President has people around them who try to make money off them on the outside. It’s a shame but it happens,” he said. “But no one working for me in any capacity should be looking to make money. They should only be here to Make America Great Again.”

He added for emphasis: “No one can promise any endorsement or nomination except me. I make these decisions on my own, period.”

The status of the inquiry was uncertain as of Monday afternoon. Transition official Aaron Harison sent Just the News a statement on behalf of spokesman Steve Cheung claiming the inquiry was wrapped up.

“As is standard practice, a broad review of the campaign’s consulting agreements has been conducted and completed, including as to Boris, among others.  We are now moving ahead together as a team to help President Trump Make America Great Again,” Cheung was quoted as saying.

Other officials told Just the News that evidence gathering and interviews were still being conducted. 

Harison also forwarded a statement from Epshteyn, broadly denying any wrongdoing. “I am honored to work for President Trump and with his team. These fake claims are false and defamatory and will not distract us from Making America Great Again," the statement read.

Epshteyn has been alongside the president for nearly a decade, helping to quarterback his legal strategies fighting off four indictments, two impeachments and multiple lawsuits. That legal team scored a big win Monday when Special Counsel Jack Smith formally withdrew both federal prosecutions against the president.

Like his boss, Epshteyn is unafraid to ruffle feathers or stir controversy and he has had some run-ins with the law, one still ongoing.

In recent months he has played a growing role crafting political communications and building the team for a Trump 2.0 administration even as he remains on the president’s campaign payroll through payments made to his consulting firm. It has been unclear publicly whether Epshteyn would join the White House officially but he has been spotted since Election Day aboard Trump’s plane or at his Mar-a-Lago resort meeting with potential nominees for top level jobs.

"A sense of unease and pressure"

A week ago, a draft of a press release was handed to transition aides announcing Epshteyn as an assistant to the president, but it was never released, several senior aides confirmed to Just the News. He has told some friends in recent days that he might prefer to stay on the outside rather than go into the administration. 

More than a dozen candidates for congressional election or job seekers in the new administration told Just the News that Epshteyn pitched them for consulting work ranging from $10,000 a month to $100,000 dating to 2022.

Some called him first, others got called. Some wanted help with a campaign endorsement or navigating the politics of Mar-a-Lago. Others wanted communications training or help positioning themselves for high level jobs in a second Trump administration. Some paid, some didn’t.

Those who got pitched by Epshteyn said he portrayed his expertise as valuable inside the complicated and hectic Trump world but that he also cautioned that hiring and paying him alone could not guarantee a job or an endorsement.  Still, some said they felt pressured by the mere fact that a man inside the Trump inner circle asked them for business, wondering if it was sanctioned by Trump or if spurning such a request would produce negative repercussions.

Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a retired Navy SEAL who previously hired Epshteyn for consulting on an unsuccessful Senate candidacy in 2022, reported to the transition team in a sworn statement that he had an uncomfortable conversation this month with Epshteyn when he inquired about whether he should apply for the job of Navy Secretary. “It is too early for that, let’s talk business,” Greitens quoted Epshteyn as telling him.

“Mr. Epshteyn’s overall tone and behavior gave me the impression of an implicit expectation to engage in business dealings with him before he would advocate for or suggest my appointment to the President,” Greitens wrote in a statement that was submitted Friday to the Trump transition office and obtained by Just the News.  “This created a sense of unease and pressure on my part.”

Greitens immediately alerted his lawyer to the concerns, who arranged for the statement to be sent to Warrington, the lawyer named by Trump and Wiles to probe the issue, according to interviews and documents.

Greitens also provided text messages between himself and Epshteyn showing the presidential lawyer in fact asked him what job he wanted in the administration when he reached out to "get your advice."

"It's too early my brother," Epshteyn texted on Nov. 7. "Let things settle in a little. What are you shooting for?"

Scott Bessent

But of all the overtures, Epshteyn’s approaches to Scott Bessent, the Treasury nominee, caused the most consternation inside Trump’s inner circle.

According to contemporaneous documents and interviews with people directly familiar with Bessent’s account to the transition office, the hedge fund manager met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last Feb. 27 to discuss helping with campaign fund-raising and giving advice on economic and geopolitical issues.

The nomination of Bessent, a successful hedge fund manager, has been largely well-received by investors and financial media. The Financial Times went as far as to say that "The next president’s choice as Treasury secretary may find a way to place MAGA economic policy in a co-operative international framework."

Around the same time, Bessent received an outreach from Epshteyn, and the two met at a restaurant, according to calendar records seen by Just The News. Bessent told the transition team that Epshteyn pitched him on a consulting contract of several tens of thousand of dollars a month. The hedge fund manager declined, according to interviews with Just The News.

A few months later as the Republican National Convention was gearing up for its summer debut in Milwaukee, Bessent received an email pitch for an investment opportunity in a sporting operation called Big3 Basketball. "Thank you, Scott and Hunter! Appreciate you both,” Epshteyn wrote in a June 13 email that re-connected Bessent with executives in the company and began a long exchange of information about the investment opportunity.

The two sides had been informally talking about the project since March, and the company includes a relative of conservative TV commentator Steve Bannon, who did not return a call seeking comment Monday.

Nothing ever came of the investment talks, according to interviews. An executive at the sporting company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just The News.

Earlier this month, Bessent raised concerns inside the Trump transition team as he was being vetted for the Treasury Secretary position about the earlier overtures from the president’s lawyer. After conversations with Vance’s office, Bessent made a call to Epshteyn to see if the offer for the consulting work from earlier in the year could still be executed. Bessent told the transition office he made extensive and detailed records, written and audio, of what transpired in the call, according to interviews.

Bessent's records included handwritten notes, which were obtained by Just the News. The notes suggest that Bessent inquired whether he could get Ephsteyn’s help to get over "the finish line" for a nomination. The notes appear to quote Epshteyn as saying it was "too late" and that such an effort should have begun "months ago.” The notes stated that the consulting work would have been for "communications training of course." "I'm Boris F*cking Epshteyn,” the notes stated.

The notes added that Epshteyn gave Bessent some "free advice: Take the NEC," an apparent reference to a job on the National Economic Council.

A person familiar with Epshteyn's thinking downplayed any friction between the presidential lawyer and Bessent. "Scott and Boris have a great personal relationship, that’s been ongoing since before Super Tuesday. They are working together to help President Trump Make America Great Again," the source said.


Interaction with a defense contractor

The transition team also received a sworn statement from a former Trump White House official, who now runs a defense company, who reported an overture this month from Epshteyn about representing his company for business in a Trump administration.

According to his sworn statement reviewed by Just the News, Epshteyn told the executive that the success of his company in the incoming administration would be dependent on retaining the lawyer’s consulting firm. 

The contractor told the transition he contacted Epshteyn in November about a lobbying firm he had previously recommended. Epshteyn held a call shortly after to pitch his own firm for consulting work. 

During the call, Epshteyn allegedly said that his services would cost $100,000 a month before the inauguration, after which the fee would increase to an unspecified amount. After the contractor declined that offer, Epshteyn offered a lower amount and suggested working with his firm would be “do or die” for the contractor’s company, the declaration alleged.

"The tone of the conversation suggested that my company’s success was contingent upon engaging his services. Specifically, he conveyed that I would need him to ensure the success of my company through these relationships,” the executive’s declaration alleged. “It was clear to me that Mr. Epshteyn was using his proximity to President Trump to personally benefit himself financially.”

The consultant also provided a text message from Epshteyn in which the presidential lawyer made his pitch: “Hey my man! I am doing strategy consulting. Let’s talk,” Epshteyn wrote in part of the message.

After Just the News inquired with Epshteyn about the executive’s declaration to the transition office, the executive reported he received a message from Epshteyn alleging his statements were “false, malicious and defamatory” and demanding that the executive retract his allegations with an apology.

But in the same message, Epshteyn confirmed he had indeed engaged in conversations with the executive about a consulting contract. “I never asked you for any compensation for anything regarding access, meetings or anything similar. You reached out to me asking about a specific firm to which I responded that I'm happy to make other recommendations. You then asked me for a call which I obliged,” Epshteyn wrote in the message.

“On the phone you asked about hiring me for strategic consulting nothing to do with access and we agreed as you would right above that you would come back the suggested structure. Again I never asked for any compensation for access or anything similar,” he added.

The message did not make mention of the text message where Epshteyn mentioned he was doing strategy consulting and wanted to talk.

Other politicos

Federal Election Commission records give some inkling of other politicos for whom who Epshteyn has worked while also representing Trump.

Those records show Epshteyn’s Georgetown Advisory firm was paid about once per month by Trump’s principal campaign committee, Donald J. Trump for President 2024, which was renamed Never Surrender, Inc. following the election. In total, Epshteyn’s firm received $1,021,861.38 in consulting fees, travel expenses, and communications work from late 2022 to just before the 2024 election. 

FEC records also show that the law firm representing Epshteyn in fighting off charges in an Arizona election case received payments from the Trump-affiliated Save America PAC in four installments in May and August of this year. The payments to the firm, Tully Bailey LLP were just over $100,000 for “Legal Consulting.”

Epshteyn has also collected over $1 million from at least 10 candidates’ campaigns in roughly the same period, half of which came from candidates who earned endorsement or favorable comments from Trump during primary battles or the general election. 

According to FEC records, the candidates included Blake Masters and Eli Crane, House candidates in Arizona; Greitens and Don Bolduc, Senate candidates in Missouri and New Hampshire, respectively; and Katie Britt, now a U.S. senator from Alabama. The FEC records do not indicate with specificity what work he was paid for, listing instead broad categories such as strategy consulting, fundraising consulting, campaign consulting, communications and legal consulting.

Five other candidates who paid Georgetown Advisory for consulting were not endorsed by Trump and did not succeed in their primary or general elections, according to the records. 

Epshteyn's legal travails

Epshteyn was indicted in Arizona this year alongside other Trump campaign lawyers, state legislators and state Republican Party officials for allegedly orchestrating a fake elector scheme in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. 

A grand jury assembled by Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes brought 9 felony charges earlier this year of conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, and forgery for attempting to change the election results in the state against Epshteyn and the other co-defendants, including Trump lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Epshteyn pleaded not guilty to the charges in June alongside the other co-defendants.

Epshteyn was arrested in 2021 in Arizona after an encounter with two women at a Scottsdale nightclub. Two women, who are sisters, accused Epshteyn of groping them in the club. Epshteyn was arrested after a security guard called the police. Attempted sexual abuse and assault chargers were dropped, and he pleaded guilty to one count of “disorderly conduct-disruptive behavior or fighting” and given probation. The conviction was set aside in early 2023, the Associated Press reported. 

Epshteyn was previously arrested in Arizona in 2014 for allegedly punching a man outside a bar. He signed a plea deal, agreeing to not contact the victim and not return to the locale, The Arizona Republic reported. He was also required to do 25 hours of community service, the paper reported.