White House accuses Democrats of releasing Epstein emails to distract from shutdown
WASHINGTON — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused House Democrats of releasing a trio of Jeffrey Epstein e-mails naming President Donald Trump on Wednesday, to distract from a pending vote to re-open the federal government.
“There are no coincidences in Washington, D.C., and it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning, ahead of Republicans reopening the government,” Leavitt said at the White House press briefing held hours before the U.S. House was set to vote on a GOP-led bill to end the month-long shutdown.
The series of Epstein e-mails was posted online by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Epstein, a one-time Trump friend and member of his Mar-a-Lago resort, states in one of the e-mails Trump “of course knew about the girls.”
Leavitt pushed back on the e-mails saying “they prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong” and added that Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a–Lago “because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep."
Democrats have long pushed for the full release of the files.
Asked about why the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the distribution of November SNAP food assistance benefits during the shutdown, Leavitt repeated the administration’s position that emergency funds should not be used to keep the program afloat.
She called a U.S. District Court judge ruling last week ordering the administration to release the funds “completely inappropriate,” before adding “SNAP recipients are going to receive their full benefits” once the shutdown ends.
Trump is expected to host Wall Street executives at the White House Wednesday evening for a private dinner. Leavitt suggested the president could be prepared to sign the funding bill soon after it passes, telling reporters his dinner would likely be open to the press and “perhaps you will see him when he signs the bill to reopen the federal government, so stay tuned on plans for that.”
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.
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