House Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a series of emails written by Jeffrey Epstein, in which the convicted sex offender claimed that former President Donald Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims. The correspondence, which also suggested that Epstein believed Mr. Trump knew more about his abuse operation than he admitted, sheds new light on their past relationship, reports Baltimore Chronicle with reference to The New York Times.
Mr. Trump has consistently denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking activities. The former president has stated that while he knew Epstein socially years ago, their relationship ended following a personal dispute. Epstein, a financier who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019, had previously faced scrutiny for his connections to several public figures.
According to the House Oversight Committee, which reviewed thousands of documents from Epstein’s estate, the selected emails raise “serious questions” about the nature of his relationship with Mr. Trump. In one 2011 message, Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell, his longtime associate who was later convicted for facilitating his crimes, that “the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” adding that a victim had “spent hours at my house with him.” In another email, Epstein wrote to journalist Michael Wolff, asserting that Mr. Trump “knew about the girls” and had once asked Ms. Maxwell “to stop.”
Democratic Representative Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, said in a statement that these communications “raise glaring questions about what else the White House is withholding and the full nature of the connection between Epstein and the president.”
The emails, all dated after Epstein’s 2008 plea deal in Florida, were part of an extensive trove provided by his estate as part of an ongoing congressional inquiry. Committee staff redacted the victims’ names for privacy. It remains unclear whether the emails were excerpts from broader conversations that could offer additional context.
Republicans on the committee accused Democrats of selectively releasing materials to damage Mr. Trump politically, claiming that Democrats were “cherry-picking” emails while withholding others that implicated Democratic officials.
One of the victims referenced in the redacted emails has been identified by Republicans as Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year. Ms. Giuffre had alleged that Ms. Maxwell recruited her into Epstein’s network while she was working at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as a teenager. In a 2016 deposition, she stated that she did not believe Mr. Trump had participated in any sexual abuse, although she had heard that he visited Epstein’s residence.
Mr. Trump has dismissed renewed scrutiny of the case as a politically motivated “hoax,” calling Epstein “a creep” and insisting he had cut all ties long before the financier’s arrest. The two men, who once moved in the same social circles in New York and Palm Beach, reportedly fell out around 2004, allegedly after a disagreement over a real estate deal.
At the time Epstein wrote about Mr. Trump in 2011, the future president was best known as a reality television star. Other correspondence from the same period shows Epstein discussing negative media coverage related to his prior conviction in Florida.
House Democrats released the emails just hours before Speaker Mike Johnson was expected to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, whose signature is needed to force a House vote compelling the Trump administration to release all investigative materials tied to the Epstein case — a move the White House opposes.
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