Thousands of new documents relating to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released by the US House Democrats, with some emails referencing president Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a batch of more than 20,000 pages of documents, images and emails. These were received from the Epstein Estate in response to a subpoena.
Three of these emails featured exchanges between Epstein and his former long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as separately with the author Michael Wolff, who in recent years has been chronicling the Trump presidency.
In one of the emails to Maxwell in April 2011, Epstein describes Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked”.
“[Victim spent hours at my house with him; he has never once been mentioned,” Epstein writes in a typo-filled email to which Maxwell replies: “I have been thinking about that…”.
The names of alleged victims and other personally identifying information were redacted from the messages.
In another email exchange between Epstein and Wolff in 2019, House Democrats have said Epstein stated Trump “knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop”.
Wolff has written four books chronicling the Trump presidency and has said he spoke to Epstein at length about Trump during his reporting for the books.
Other emails between Epstein and Wolff show the pair discussing whether they could “craft an answer” for an upcoming Trump CNN interview.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you– either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015, after Trump had officially entered the race to become US president for his first term.
“If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Epstein said.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff replied. “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. 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.”
Bipartisan calls to release full Epstein files
The release of these documents is the latest in a monthslong bipartisan effort to release all of the Justice Department files relating to Epstein.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and Republicans on Wednesday claimed Democrats were selectively choosing to withhold documents that name Democrat officials.
Republicans have also claimed that in the 2011 email between Epstein and Maxwell, the Democrats redacted the name “Virginia”, which is likely in reference to prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who alleged abuse from Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and never accused Trump of any wrongdoing.
Republicans posted to social media saying the Epstein Estate hadn’t redacted Virignia’s name when providing the records to the committee, claiming that the decision to redact Virgnia’s name is to “create a fake narrative to slander President Trump”.
Earlier this year, Giuffre died by apparent suicide, and her memoir was published posthumously last month.
Also on Wednesday, Arizona Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva was sworn into Congress and is expected to provide the final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on a House bill that would compel the DOJ to release the government’s full investigative files on Epstein. The earliest this vote could happen is the first week in December.
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