Late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly alleged in emails to associate Ghislaine Maxwell and author Michael Wolff that Donald Trump knew about his conduct — including “about the girls” — according to emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The emails suggest that the two had a closer relationship than Trump has let on. The president has said the two were friendly but had a falling out after Epstein “stole” women who worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and he has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing. Epstein died by suicide in federal prison in 2019.
They also place a new spotlight on a months-long news cycle the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to move past, one that has rankled the president since July. Democrats have demanded the administration release the “Epstein files,” government documents they say will expose more of Epstein’s transgressions and high-profile people to whom he trafficked girls, all while Trump has launched a $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal for reporting on his ties to the late sex offender.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Wednesday statement to TheWrap.
“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,” her 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.”
Meanwhile, House Oversight Democrats on Wednesday said the emails “raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein’s horrific crimes.”
“It’s time to end this cover-up and RELEASE THE FILES,” the Democrats further wrote on Facebook.
In an email to Wolff dated Jan. 31, 2019, Epstein referenced the Florida estate and claimed that, while Trump said he “asked him to resign,” Epstein was “never a member ever.”
“[O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop,” Epstein wrote.
In another email from Epstein to Maxwell, dated April 2, 2011, Epstein claimed Trump spent “hours” with an unidentified victim at Epstein’s home. The victim’s name was redacted.
“I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote. “He has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there.”
“I have been thinking about that…” Maxwell responded.
Wolff, the author of multiple books on Trump and who purports to have gotten “inside Trump’s head” on a Daily Beast podcast, appeared amenable to pushing Trump into a public relations crisis in a 2015 email. Wolff told Epstein on Dec. 15, 2015, months after Trump announced his initial run for president, that CNN planned to ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein.
“If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Epstein wrote back that night.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote the next day. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
