Donald Trump has insisted he never visited Jeffrey Epstein‘s private island, and called his affiliation to the case a “hoax”. The US president maintained that his name would not appear in the infamous files, which he said were “run by the worst scum on Earth”. He told reporters: “It’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion. I can say this, those files were run by the worst scum on Earth.

“They were run by [former FBI director James] Comey, they were run by (former US attorney general Merrick) Garland, they were run by Biden, and all of the people that actually ran the government. Those files were run by these people. They were run by my enemy. If there was anything in there, they would have used them for the election.”

The Republican was also asked whether he would ever consider pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and convicted sex-trafficker serving 20 years in prison for helping him abuse young girls.

He said: “Nobody has approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that aspect of it but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”

In a bizarre moment during his press conference in Soctland with Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Trump said he “never had the privilege” of visiting Epstein’s island, Little Saint James.

He said: “By the way, I never went to the island. And Bill Clinton went there, supposedly, 28 times … I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn it down.

“In one of my very good moments, I turned it down; I didn’t want to go to his island.”

The US president also said, “I’m not a drawing person” after being asked about a letter written to Epstein that reportedly included a sketched outline of a naked woman.

He said: “I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings. Sometimes you would say, would you draw a building?

“And I’ll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff, but I’m not a drawing person. I don’t do drawings of women, that I can tell you.”