Donald Trump feared that Ghislaine Maxwell could embroil him in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, the author Michael Wolff has claimed in a new book.

The former US president had sought to play down his long association with the disgraced financier, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The arrest of Ms Maxwell, who faces charges stemming from her relationship with Epstein, worried Mr Trump, Mr Wolff has written in his latest book detailing the final days of his administration and the aftermath.

“Has she said anything about me? Is she going to talk? Will she roll on anybody?” Mr Trump is alleged to have said.

Ms Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking of children and all other charges.

Mr Trump’s friendship with Epstein goes back to the days when he was better known as a property developer than a politician. In a 2002 profile of Epstein in New York Magazine, Mr Trump is quoted as saying: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.

“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Mr Trump later severed links, saying he “was not a fan”.

Mr Wolff’s book, Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency, said Mr Trump was rumoured to be considering running for the House of Representatives, so he could lead an attempt to impeach his successor, Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, a slew of Republicans have stepped forward to back the former US president’s voting fraud claims in advance of mid-term elections.

A candidate to be Arizona’s top elections official said he hopes a review of 2020 ballots, under way in his state, will lead to the reversal of Mr Trump’s defeat there.

In Georgia, a member of Congress who used to focus primarily on culturally conservative causes, such as opposing same-sex marriage, has made Mr Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen a central element of his bid to try to unseat the current secretary of state.

Last month in Virginia, a political novice who joined Mr Trump’s legal team to try to overturn his 2020 loss in court mounted a fierce primary challenge – and won – after attacking a Republican state House member who said he had seen no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.

“He wasn’t doing anything – squat, diddly,” Wren Williams said in an interview about his primary opponent. “He wasn’t taking election integrity seriously. I’m sitting here fighting for election integrity in the courts, and he’s my elected representative who can legislate and he’s not.”

Across the country, as campaigns gear up for a handful of key races this year and the pivotal 2022 mid-terms, Republican candidates for state and federal offices are increasingly focused on the last election – running on the falsehood spread by Mr Trump and his allies that the 2020 race was stolen from him.

While most of these campaigns are in their early stages, the embrace of Mr Trump’s claims is already widespread on the trail and in candidates’ messages to voters.

The trend provides evidence of Mr Trump’s continued grip on the Republican party, reflecting how a movement inspired by his claims and centred on overturning a democratic election has gained currency in the party since the January 6 Capitol attack.

Dozens of candidates promoting the baseless notion that the election was rigged are seeking powerful statewide offices in several of the decisive states where Mr Trump and his allies sought to overturn the outcome and engineer his return to the White House.

Many are newcomers to politics. They boast campaign websites proclaiming “America First”, call themselves patriots or tout their military service. Some, including Chuck Gray, declare “election integrity” their top priority.

Mr Gray is one of at least six pro-Trump Republicans challenging Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, who has voted to impeach Mr Trump for inciting the Capitol attack.

 

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