Politicians, celebrities and Wall Street titans: convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's circle was filled with some of the world's most powerful people.

This was no mere coincidence or stroke of luck.

Indeed, Epstein was a "wholesale collector of people, including people he didn't know," one Wall Street insider said amid growing speculation about the disgraced financier's "black book".

He also cultivated a level of privacy that means, even 20 years after allegations against him and his associates first surfaced, many questions remain unanswered.

Namely, which of the rich and powerful who were recorded as attending Epstein's parties, travelling on his private jet or publicly praising him were involved in the abuse for which he was convicted?

Now, fresh details from his 50th birthday book have given a further glimpse into how much Epstein's friends may have known about his true nature.

Here are some of the names believed to be in Epstein's orbit, and how they've responded to his criminal downfall.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump once called Epstein a "terrific guy". ( )

A key reason why Epstein's name is in the media again is due to the timeline of his friendship with the current US president.

It is understood Donald Trump was friends with Epstein for at least 15 years.

In a 2002 New York Magazine feature on Epstein, Mr Trump calls him a "terrific guy" and 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 told the magazine.

The pair were seen throughout the 90s frequently attending parties together and Mr Trump's name is also seen in Epstein's flight logs seven times — though none of these flights are to his private island, Little St James.

Little St James is one of Epstein's private Caribbean islands where he was alleged to have trafficked underage girls and welcomed a number of high-profile guests.

"I never went to his island, fortunately," Mr Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman in 2024.

"But a lot of people did."

After Epstein's 2019 arrest, Mr Trump said he had not spoken to him for 15 years due to a "falling out".

One of Epstein's key accusers, Virginia Giuffre, also says she was recruited by Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump's members-only club.

Ms Giuffre, aged 41, died by suicide at her Western Australia property earlier this year.

In July, Mr Trump revised the reason for the pair's falling-out, saying it was because Epstein "stole" young women from the club.

"When I heard about it, I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people'," he told reporters.

"And then, not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, 'Out of here.'"

In late August, publicly released interviews with Maxwell said she had never seen Mr Trump in "any inappropriate setting in any way".

"The president was never inappropriate with anybody.