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BE. May 20, 1997 Donald Trump’s instincts regarding Jeffrey Epstein were solid. But if the reporters who were beginning to look into Epstein’s mysterious background had dug a bit further, there’s a chance they would have hit pay dirt as well—and not just in Palm Beach. In California, for instance, a paper trail already stretched from the Santa Monica Police Department to Epstein’s front door. In the spring—almost the summer—of 1997, a call came in to the police. The young woman who placed it—a young actress who'd appeared on Baywatch and General Hospital—said she’d been sexually assaulted at a trendy hotel called Shutters on the Beach. The officer who took the call knew the woman’s name—— and her voice. A week earlier, she’d told him about an encounter with Epstein. The woman had not wanted to make a formal complaint at the time. But she had taken the cop’s card, and now he was happy to hear that she’d changed her mind. In a shaky voice, MMM described Epstein as a tallish man—five feet eleven or six feet in height was her guess—with gray hair and brown eyes. He was the owner of a large black four-door Mercedes and was a regular at Shutters on the Beach, which was the kind of place that cost one thousand dollars a night and was frequented by actors, agents, and other Hollywood types. GE old the cop that she was a model and actress herself. She’d known Epstein for about a month. They had a friend in common, and she’d sent him her head shots. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031191