Donald Trump campaign accidentally uses an airplane once owned by ... Jeffrey Epstein

WASHINGTON - After mechanical problems put its regular airplane out of commission, the Donald Trump campaign faced another transportation headache Monday: It recently wound up using an airplane once owned by convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein .

The campaign said they used the plane on an emergency basis on Saturday after "Trump Force One" was sidelined en route to a campaign rally in Montana . Officials said they did not know the replacement plane they used to go to fundraisers in Wyoming and Colorado was once owned by Epstein a long time ago.

"We had absolutely no idea," said a campaign official who discussed the airplane situation on condition of anonymity.

The plane in question was not the so-called "Lolita Express" that Epstein allegedly used to ferry young girls to a private island. That aircraft has been destroyed.

Trump and Epstein once knew each other socially, but there is no evidence that the former president was aware of Epstein's illegal activities. Epstein died in 2019 while in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The imbroglio surfaced after a social media user tracked the tail number of the airplane that Trump used Saturday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump campaign accidentally uses an airplane once owned by ... Jeffrey Epstein