U.S. lawmakers have released over 20,000 pages of documents related to the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, including some that reference President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday morning, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email exchanges. These included correspondence between Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, and Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime associate currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
The committee also released emails between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, who has penned several books about Trump.
Within hours, House Republicans responded with a substantial release of documents, countering what they described as a Democratic effort to “cherry-pick” information and “create a fake narrative to slander President Trump.”
Trump and Epstein were reportedly friends for years, though the president has stated that their relationship ended in the early 2000s, prior to Epstein’s initial arrest. Trump has consistently denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
The BBC is currently reviewing the released documents and will provide updates as information becomes available. Here’s a summary of what we know so far, along with the White House’s response.
The initial email released by Democrats, dated 2011, is an exchange between Epstein and Maxwell.
In the email, 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 continues, stating that Trump “has never once been mentioned”, including by a “police chief.”
Maxwell replied: “I have been thinking about that…”
The victim’s name was redacted in the version released by the Democrats, though the unredacted version is included in the larger document release. This version reveals the name “virginia.”
The White House has indicated that this refers to the late Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide earlier this year. In a statement, the White House asserted that Giuffre “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”
Representative Robert Garcia, the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, stated that the redaction was initially made to protect the victim’s identity, consistent with the wishes of the family.
In exchanges with Wolff, Epstein discusses his connection to Trump, who at the time was campaigning for the presidency before his first term.
In a second email exchange released by Democrats, Wolff informs Epstein in 2015 that CNN plans to question 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 replies: “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.”
In a separate email from October 2016, days before the U.S. presidential election, Wolff offers Epstein an opportunity 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 the email, 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”.
Wolff acknowledged the release in a video posted on his Instagram, stating: “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.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized the emails as “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.
“These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
When questioned at the press briefing regarding the broader release of documents by the House Oversight Committee, Leavitt asserted that they proved “absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
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