UPDATED 1:55 P.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -House Democrats on Wednesday released emails which they said raised new questions about President Donald Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and how much he knew about his abuse of underage girls — a disclosure Trump blasted as an attempt to divert attention from the government shutdown.
The Democrats released messages between Epstein and author Michael Wolff and Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who is serving a 20-year prison sentence on charges related to her role in facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking. In one 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.
The disclosure came on the day a new Democratic member is scheduled to be sworn into the House, a move expected to be a tipping point in a campaign to force a vote on releasing all non-classified files related to Epstein, reigniting interest in a case that has been a major political headache for Trump.
The batch of emails includes a 2011 message to Maxwell in which Epstein described Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked,” adding that Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of his victims, whose name is redacted.
Trump has vehemently and consistently denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking. He has said that he and Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, were once friends before having a falling out.
Trump on Wednesday accused Democrats of releasing the emails to divert attention from the 43-day shutdown of the federal government, the longest in American history.
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday afternoon.
At an earlier briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of redacting the victim’s name in the released emails because the victim was Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April and had called Trump friendly without accusing him of any wrongdoing in her posthumous memoir.
“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.” Leavitt said.
TRUMP’S OWN SUPPORTERS DIVIDED
The Epstein case has dogged Trump for months, upsetting even his own political supporters, who believe the government has been covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful, and have been unusually critical of his Justice Department for not releasing more information about the Epstein case.
Just four in 10 Republicans told an October Reuters/Ipsos poll that they approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files — well below the nine in 10 who approve of his overall performance in the White House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva on Wednesday to succeed her late father in Congress. Grijalva is expected to provide the final signature needed for a petition to force a House vote to release all unclassified records related to Epstein, something Johnson and Trump have resisted up to now.
Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who has been working with Democrats to compel release of the so-called “Epstein files,” wrote on X that there were now enough signatures for the petition, paving the way for a floor vote after the Thanksgiving break at the end of the month.
The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Representative Robert Garcia, called on the Justice Department to fully release the Epstein files to the public, accusing Trump of trying to prevent their disclosure.
“These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President,” he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Nathan Layne, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland, Kat Jackson; Editing by Franklin Paul and Nick Zieminski)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said Donald Trump knew about the girls that Epstein was accused of victimizing, according to emails released on Wednesday by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Democrats cite exchanges with author Michael Wolff and Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s former girlfriend who is serving a 20-year prison sentence on charges including sex trafficking of a minor.
Among the exchanges is a 2019 email to Wolff in which Epstein said that Trump “knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” and a 2011 message to Maxwell from Epstein asserting that Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of his victims, whose name is redacted.
Trump has vehemently and consistently denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking. He has said that he and Epstein, who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, were once friends before having a falling out.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The release came on the day that House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva to succeed her late father in Congress.
Grijalva is expected to provide the final signature needed for a petition to force a House vote to release all unclassified records related to Epstein, something Johnson and Trump have resisted up to now.
The Epstein case has dogged Trump and his Justice Department for months, creating upset among Trump’s political base, which has been unusually critical of the administration for not releasing more information about Epstein’s alleged crimes.
The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Representative Robert Garcia, called on the Justice Department to fully release the Epstein files to the public.
“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President,” he said in a statement.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Steve Holland, Kat Jackson; Editing by Franklin Paul and Nick Zieminski)
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