WASHINGTON — US House Democrats investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein released emails Wednesday they say show President Donald Trump knew about the financier’s abuse of underage girls as far back as 2011.
The three emails released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform were among 23,000 pages of documents turned over to the committee by Epstein’s estate, according to Democrats.
In a 2011 correspondence with the now-convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim whose name is redacted from the email. In the same email, Epstein refers to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked.”
In a 2015 email exchange between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff, Wolff tells Epstein that he’s heard CNN will ask Trump about his relationship with the financier. The two have an exchange about how to hypothetically “craft an answer” for Trump.
Wolff responds, “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable (public relations) and political currency.”
In a January 2019 email, also to Wolff, Epstein referenced a victim’s name, redacted, as having been at Trump’s Florida estate and private club, Mar-a-Lago, and wrote “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
Trump has said he had a falling out with Epstein and kicked him out of his club over allegations Epstein poached young women workers from the club’s spa.
Emails raise more questions, leading Dem says
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement Wednesday the emails “raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”
“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims,” Garcia continued.
Within hours of the committee Democrats’ release of the emails, committee Republican leaders issued a brief press release linking to “an additional 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein” contained on Google Drive and Dropbox clouds.
During Wednesday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
Leavitt added that Trump and Epstein both lived in Palm Beach, Florida.
“Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar a Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep,” she said.
Congress investigates after FBI backtracks
The bipartisan committee investigation began shortly after the FBI released a July memo stating the Department of Justice would not be releasing any further information on the government’s sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
Epstein was found dead, apparently by suicide, in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell where he was awaiting federal trial.
The FBI’s announcement that the agency would not release further details caused a firestorm of demands to release all investigative material, even among Trump’s supporters in Congress and far-right media influencers including Megyn Kelly and the late Charlie Kirk.
Trump campaigned on releasing what are often referred to as the “Epstein files.”
A bipartisan effort in the House of Representatives aiming to force a vote on the release of the files has succeeded now that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has sworn in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. Johnson says the vote will be held next week.
Grijalva provides the final signature needed on a discharge petition by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., calling for a floor vote on a bill to release all Epstein investigation files.
Massie and Khanna hosted a press conference on Capitol Hill in early September featuring several women who told stories of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell.
Since the FBI memo, a magnifying glass has been fixed on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein.
The president sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on a 50th birthday card that Trump allegedly gave to Epstein. The card featured a cryptic message and a doodle of a naked woman with Trump’s apparent signature mimicking pubic hair.
The Journal also reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed the president in May that his name appeared in the Epstein case files. The context in which his name appeared was unclear.
Trump has denied the reports.
This article was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator. It has been updated to note that the vote on the discharge petition is scheduled for next week now that Representative Grijalva has been sworn in and has signed the petition.
He will get away again.