They don't want to lose access.
"In total, the exchanges about Trump between [financial reporter Landon] Thomas and Epstein amount to a series of tips about the president’s behavior. And these tips came from a known associate of the president, a convicted pedophile. Little of the information given to Thomas, however, ever saw the light of day — not in Thomas’s reporting, not in the New York Times, and not in any other outlets."
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/14/epstein-new-york-times-trump/