Liz Stein, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, said newly released emails from Epstein claiming President Trump “knew” about his criminal activities are nothing new to her or the hundreds of fellow survivors.
House Oversight Committee Democrats released emails sent by Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell and author Michaell Wolff, in which Epstein alleged that Trump “knew about the girls” and called the president “the dog that hasn’t barked.” Stein told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera on Wednesday that the emails have offered Americans a “deeper dive” into Epstein and Trump’s well-publicized friendship.
“I think that we have long established that Trump and Epstein had a close friendship, but now we’re seeing kind of a deeper dive into what that might have looked like,” Stein said. “I think that it’s important for us to remember that there were many high-profile men that were friends with Epstein, and I anticipate that we might see more information coming out also about them.”
As for Epstein’s suggestion that Trump “knew” about his sex trafficking operation, Stein told MSNBC viewers, “I don’t think it’s new information to any of us. I think that we have already seen that he may have had an idea of what Epstein was up to.”
The survivor and activist went on to reference Trump’s birthday note to Epstein, which was released earlier this year, as another reason to suspect that Trump may have known more about Epstein than he has said he did.
Watch Stein’s full MSNBC appearance yourself in the video below.
In the back half of her interview, Stein again pushed for the release of the government’s Epstein files, which is an issue the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to move on from this year.
“It strikes me as odd that this was a campaign promise of the president and he has backpedaled on that,” Stein said. “That’s really concerning to me and it’s concerning to all of the survivors. We are victims of a crime and the crime was sex trafficking, and we just want this crime to be prosecuted in a manner that we deserve.
“By our government’s own admission, this is a crime that victimized over 1,000 girls and young women, and I just don’t understand how we can let this go on,” Stein added. “I think this is an issue that has been highly politicized when it’s not a political issue whatsoever. … To politicize it at this moment feels particularly hurtful to the survivors.”
Regarding the Trump administration’s apparent reluctance to release the Epstein files, Stein told Cabrera, “It’s clear that this administration has an issue with this information being released. I don’t know what their reasons are.”
She subsequently pleaded with Republican lawmakers to “refocus and look at it from a more human lens about what was done to us, and who perpetrated these crimes.”
Trump himself has denied any knowledge or participation in Epstein’s crimes. In a Wednesday statement to TheWrap, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump. The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”
“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,” Leavitt’s statement continued. “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
