A New York author and journalist has released audio tapes that appear to detail how Donald Trump had a close social relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which he long denied.

The tapes, made as part of the Fire and Fury podcast series by Michael Wolff, author of three books about Trump's first term and bid for a second term in 2020, and James Truman, former NME journalist and editorial director of Condé Nast, published, included Epstein's thoughts on the inner workings of the former US president's inner circle.

Wolff says the recordings were made during a discussion with Epstein in 2017 about writing his biography. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges two years later. Despite his crimes, the wealthy financier remained at the center of a social circle of the rich and powerful in the United States and abroad, which included many famous names.

Wolff claims the excerpt is just a fraction of about “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and his long-standing, deep relationship with Donald Trump.”

Trump once praised Epstein in a 2002 conversation with New York Magazine, calling him “a great guy” and suggesting he was interested in women “on the young side.” But he claimed the couple fell out 15 years before Epstein's 2008 conviction on prostitution charges in Florida.

“I was not a fan of his, I can tell you that,” the president said after Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019.

The “Fire” and “Fury” recordings show Epstein recalling how then-President Trump played his circles against each other. “His people fight each other and then he poisons the well outside,” he says.

The author names Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus and Kellyanne Conway as some of the altar boys and officials whom Trump pitted against each other like courtiers in a competitive court.

“He'll tell 10 people 'Bannon is a scumbag' and 'Priebus isn't doing a good job' and 'Kellyanne has a big mouth – what do you think?'

“'(JPMorgan Chase CEO) Jamie Dimon says you're a problem and I shouldn't keep you. And I spoke to (financier) Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new speaker.'”

Epstein continues his exposition of Trump's approach to management: “Kelly(anne) – even though I hired Kellyanne's husband – Kellyanne is just too much of a wild card. And then he says to Bannon, 'You know I really want to keep you, but Kellyanne hates you.'”

In response to the podcast, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely makes up lies to sell fiction because he clearly has no morals or ethics,” and accused the author of ” “false slander” and engaging in “blatant election interference on behalf of Kamala Harris.”

Wolffs claims in the podcast that he became a “vent” for Epstein “to express his disbelief at someone whose sins he knew so well, and that person was then actually elected president.” Epstein was completely with Trump busy and, to be honest, was afraid of him.”

In the broadest sense, Wolff wants to paint a picture of two wealthy men in the 1980s whose common interests lie in money, women and status. He describes how they socialized together in New York.

The Guardian recently revealed that in 1993, Epstein had taken Stacey Williams, a Sports Illustrated model and his girlfriend of two months, to Trump's Fifth Avenue penthouse and allowed, or perhaps even encouraged, the former US president to see her in what she described as a called groping “twisted game”.

In the podcast, Wolff said: “Here are these two guys who are both driven by the urge to do whatever they want with women: dominance, submission and entertainment.” And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”