Documents released Wednesday reveal that Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to a journalist that Donald Trump “knew about the girls.” What Trump knew, and whether it related to Epstein’s crimes, remains unclear. The White House quickly accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the president.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Democrats, released three emails mentioning Trump, including one from 2011 in which Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump had “spent hours” at his house with a sex trafficking victim, AP reported. The disclosures have reignited questions about Trump’s ties to Epstein and what he may have known about the sex offender’s yearslong exploitation of underage girls. Trump has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said he ended their friendship years ago.
The Democrats’ release redacted the victim’s name, though Republicans on the committee later identified her as Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters with wealthy and powerful men. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges.
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Giuffre, who passed away earlier this year, long maintained that Trump was not among the men who abused her. In a deposition, she testified under oath that she did not believe Trump had any knowledge of Epstein’s misconduct. In her memoir, she described meeting Trump only once while working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing.
She wrote that her father, who also worked at the club, introduced her to Trump. She described him as friendly and recalled that he offered to help her get babysitting jobs with parents at the club.
Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier,” Giuffre wrote.
Staff who worked in Epstein’s household also testified that while Trump visited Epstein’s home, they did not witness any inappropriate behavior.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt criticized the Democrats, saying they “selectively leaked emails” to create a false narrative against Trump. On Truth Social, Trump accused Democrats of reviving the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” to distract from failures on the government shutdown and other issues.
“There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!” Trump wrote.
In July, Trump said he had banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because Epstein was poaching employees, including Giuffre. “I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people,’” Trump told reporters. He added that Epstein “stole her.”
Shortly after the Democratic email release, Republicans on the committee published what they said were 20,000 additional pages of documents from Epstein’s estate. These included emails where Epstein commented on Trump’s political rise and corresponded with journalists.
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The release recalls a story that shadowed Trump’s presidency when the FBI and Justice Department declined to release more documents, disappointing conspiracy theorists expecting new revelations.
In one 2019 email to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
In an April 2011 email to Maxwell, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. Virginia spent hours at my house with him… he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.” Maxwell replied, “I have been thinking about that.”
Leavitt clarified that the person referenced is Giuffre, who had accused other prominent figures, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, of sexual exploitation. Giuffre died by suicide in April. Prince Andrew has denied her allegations and said he did not recall meeting her.
It remains unclear what Epstein meant by calling Trump a dog that “hadn’t barked,” but Epstein and Maxwell elsewhere accused Giuffre of fabricating claims about her interactions with powerful men.
Leavitt reiterated that Giuffre “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.” She added, “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. 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.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Wolff, Maxwell’s attorney David Markus, and representatives for Giuffre’s family.
In interviews with the Justice Department, Maxwell denied ever witnessing any sexual misconduct involving Trump. “I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting,” she told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
Giuffre initially came forward after Epstein received an 18-month Florida jail term through a secret deal that avoided federal prosecution. She said she was approached by Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago in 2000. Maxwell, now serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s trafficking network, has argued she should never have been convicted. She was later moved to a minimum-security camp in Texas.
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