Jeffrey Epstein emails released by Democrats say Donald Trump 'knew about the girls' and spent time with a victim

WASHINGTON — Democrats on a U.S. House committee on Wednesday released emails of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in which he said President Donald Trump knew about the financier's relationships with underage girls.

But the White House said the emails were selectively released to create a false narrative, and House Republicans responded by making public 20,000 more documents.

One of three emails released by Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee is a private correspondence between Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2011 in which Epstein said Trump "spent hours at my house" with a victim of sex trafficking.

In a separate email with author Michael Wolff in 2019, Epstein stated that Trump "of course knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop."

Epstein and Wolff also discussed in an email whether they could "craft an answer" for an upcoming Trump CNN interview, with Wolff characterizing Epstein’s leverage over Trump, saying, "If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency."

Thousands of documents

Democrats on the committee said the emails were among more than 23,000 documents obtained from the Epstein estate that it is reviewing.

"The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat. "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."

But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the Democrats in a statement of floating "selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump" and "distract from President Trump's historic accomplishments."

"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," Leavitt said, adding, "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."

The information in the three emails released Wednesday is sure to renew focus on Trump’s relationship with Epstein, who hanged himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on more charges. Trump has repeatedly denied being close to the former financier.

Republicans on the Oversight Committee responded by releasing more than 20,000 other documents they said have been obtained from Epstein's estate.

A Republican spokeswoman, Jessica Andrews, said in a statement that among the thousands of documents that the Epstein estate has released are the names of Democratic officials.

"Democrats continue to carelessly cherry-pick documents to generate clickbait that is not grounded in the facts," Andrews said.

But much of the focus as of Wednesday was on a Democratic-released April 2, 2011, email from Epstein to Maxwell, who is currently in prison on charges of trafficking young girls. He wrote: "i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump ... [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there"

Justice documents

The release of the emails came as a new Democratic House member from Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, was sworn in Wednesday.

After delivering a floor speech, Grijalva signed a discharge petition to trigger a vote to release files related to Epstein, giving it the needed 218 signatures. The vote would require the Justice Department to release all unclassified documents and communications related to Epstein and his sex trafficking operation.

 House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said a vote could come quickly.

“We’re going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week,” Johnson said.

The speaker is required by House rules to hold the vote, despite opposition from himself and his GOP lieutenants, because 218 signatures have now been collected on a bipartisan discharge petition. But he could have delayed it a bit longer, into early December.

Long Island’s two Democratic House members supported the bipartisan effort to force release of all federal investigative files.

But Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) has called the maneuver being embraced by Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) and Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) "reckless" and led by "extremists from each party more interested in stirring the pot than solving problems."

On Wednesday, his fellow Long Island Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said he also opposed the effort. He said there is no language in the bill being proposed to protect the privacy of the survivors of the “horrific” crimes or “that justice is carried out properly.”

With AP