US lawmakers have released more than 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some that mention President Donald Trump.
Early on Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email exchanges, including correspondence between Epstein, who died in 2019 in prison, and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
They also released emails between Epstein and the author Michael Wolff, who has written numerous books about Trump.
Within hours, House Republicans released a massive tranche of documents to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to “cherry-pick” documents. They also said it was an attempt to “create a fake narrative to slander President Trump”.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails were “selectively leaked” by House Democrats to “liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
“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,” she said.
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s for years, but the president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
What the Epstein-Maxwell email says
The first email released by Democrats is from 2011 and is between Epstein and Maxwell.
In it, Epstein writes to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him”.
Epstein goes on to write that Trump “has never once been mentioned”, including by a “police chief”.
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
The victim’s name was redacted in the email the Democrats released, although the unredacted version is in the tranche released by the committee. That shows the name “Virginia”.
The White House said it refers to the late Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide earlier this year. In a statement, the White House said Giuffre “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions”.
Giuffre said in a 2016 deposition that she never saw Trump participate in any abuse. And in a memoir released this year, she did not accuse the president of any wrongdoing.
Asked why the name was originally redacted, Representative Robert Garcia – the leading Democrat on the US House Oversight Committee – said the party will never release names of victims in line with the wishes of the families.
What the Epstein-Wolff emails say
In exchanges with Wolff, the author, Epstein discusses his connection to Trump, who – at the time – was campaigning for the presidency ahead of his first term in office.
In a second email exchange released by Democrats, Wolff writes to Epstein in 2015 to notify him that CNN is planning to ask Trump about their relationship, “either on air or in scrum afterwards”.
Epstein responds: “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
Wolff writes: “I think you should let him hang himself. 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.”
He adds: “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.”
Reuters Author Michael Wolff is seen on the set of NBC’s ‘Today’ in 2018Reuters
“I have been trying to talk about this story for a very long time now,” Wolff said on Wednesday
In a separate email from October 2016, days before the US presidential election, Wolff offers Epstein a chance to sit for an interview that could “finish” Trump.
“There’s an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him. Interested?”, Wolff writes to Epstein.
A third email released by Democrats is dated January 2019, during Trump’s first term in office.
In it, Epstein tells Wolff: “Trump said he asked me to resign” apparently referring to his membership at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club, adding, he was “never a member ever”.
Epstein adds that “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop”.
Responding to the release in a video he posted to Instagram, Wolff said: “Some of those emails are between Epstein and me, with Epstein discussing his relationship with Donald Trump.”
“I have been trying to talk about this story for a very long time now,” he added.
Andrew emailed Epstein in 2011
As well as Trump, a released document also mentions Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew.
He responded to an email forwarded by Ghislaine Maxwell via Jeffrey Epstein in March 2011 about alleged sexual activity with a masseuse working for Epstein.
Andrew’s reply reads: “Hey there! What’s all this? I don’t know anything about this! You must SAY so please. This has NOTHING to do with me. I can’t take any more of this.”
Maxwell had forwarded a “right of reply” email from the Mail on Sunday on 4 March, making numerous allegations about Maxwell, Epstein, and then-Prince Andrew.
The right of reply email states that a woman, whose name is redacted in the released document, was introduced to Andrew by the disgraced financier in 2001, at Maxwell’s house in London where she had sex with Andrew.
On 6 March 2011 the Mail on Sunday published a story including a photograph of Prince Andrew and Virginia Guiffre.
Lord Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US in September over his links to Epstein, is also mentioned in the new documents.
They show he was in contact with Epstein as late as 2016, according to the documents.
The latest previous reported contact between the pair was when the then-business secretary took advice from Epstein in a banking deal in March 2010, just months after the American businessman’s release from prison for child sex offences, as reported by the Daily Telegraph.
An email from Epstein to Lord Mandelson on 6 November 2016, shortly after the peer’s birthday, reads: “63 years old. You made it”.
Lord Mandelson replies less than 90 minutes later saying: “Just. I have decided to extend my life by spending more of it in the US”.
Epstein then replies “in the Donald White House”, referring to the US presidential election due later that week.
Epstein goes on to say “you were right about staying away from Andrew. I was right in your staying with Rinaldo [sic]”, a reference to Lord Mandelson’s now-husband Reinaldo Avilda da Silva.
Lord Mandelson has repeatedly said he regrets his relationship with Epstein. He declined to comment on the emails when approached by the BBC.
What the survivors have said
Annie Farmer, one of Epstein’s accusers and a key witness in Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial, shared a statement after the emails were released.
In it she said: “The more information that comes out about Jeffrey Epstein, the more questions we’re left with. Survivors deserve more than a trickle of information.”
Farmer demanded the “full release” of the so-called Epstein files and said “the estimated one thousand women and girls who were harmed by Epstein and his associates deserve full transparency”.–BBC
