WASHINGTON (AP) — In a 2019 email to a journalist, Jeffrey Epstein claimed that Donald Trump “knew about the girls,” according to documents released Wednesday. However, what Trump allegedly knew — and whether it related to the convicted sex offender’s crimes — remains unclear. The White House quickly accused Democrats of deliberately leaking the emails to smear the president.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three emails referencing Trump, including a 2011 message Epstein sent to his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell stating that Trump had spent “hours” at Epstein’s home with a sex-trafficking victim.
The revelations appear to raise fresh questions about Trump’s friendship with Epstein and what knowledge he may have had regarding the years-long scheme prosecutors describe as Epstein’s exploitation of underage girls. The Republican businessman-turned-politician has consistently denied any wrongdoing connected to Epstein, saying he ended their association years ago.
The 2011 email released by Democrats redacted the victim’s name, but Republican committee members later identified her as Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters with a number of his wealthy and powerful friends. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting federal charges.
The emails released Wednesday are part of a broader cache of 23,000 documents provided to the Oversight Committee by Epstein’s estate.
Giuffre says Trump ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’
Giuffre, who died earlier this year, long maintained that Trump was not among the men who victimized her. In sworn testimony, she stated that she did not believe Trump knew about Epstein’s misconduct toward underage girls. In her recently released memoir, she recounted meeting Trump only once while working as a spa attendant at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing.
Giuffre wrote that her father, who also worked at the club, introduced her to Trump. She described him as friendly and said he offered to help her find childcare jobs for parents at the club. Giuffre wrote that Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier.”
Other Epstein family members also testified under oath that while Trump had visited Epstein’s home, they never witnessed any inappropriate behavior from him.
Republicans say emails were released to smear Trump
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Democrats “selectively leaked emails” to “create a false narrative aimed at smearing President Trump.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Democrats are “trying to revive the Jeffrey Epstein hoax because they’ll do anything to distract from how badly they’ve bungled” the government shutdown “and so many other topics.” He added: “There should be no deflection to Epstein or anything else, and any Republican involved should just focus on opening our country and repairing the tremendous damage caused by the Democrats!”
In July, Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because his former friend “took people working for me,” including Giuffre. He said the women were “taken out of the spa, hired by him — in other words, they vanished.”
“I told them, ‘Look, we don’t want you taking our people,’” Trump told reporters. When asked whether Giuffre was one of the employees Epstein had lured, he hesitated but later said Epstein had “stolen her.”
Shortly after Democrats released the emails referencing Trump, Republican committee members pushed back by releasing an additional 20,000 pages of Epstein estate documents, including excerpts from a book by James Patterson about the former financier.
Emails reignite questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein
The release brings back a storyline that has lingered over Trump’s presidency. During the summer, the FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced they would not release additional documents that investigators had spent weeks reviewing, frustrating conspiracy theorists and online sleuths hoping for new revelations.
In a 2019 email to journalist Michael Wolff, who has written extensively about Trump, Epstein wrote: “Of course he knew about the girls when he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
In an email to Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who is now imprisoned for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, dated April 2, 2011, Epstein wrote: “I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. (Name redacted) spent hours at my house with him, never mentioned. Sheriff, etc. I was 75% there already.”
Maxwell replied the same day: “I’ve thought about that.”
The name of the person who spent time with Trump was redacted in the email, but House Democrats identified the individual as “the victim.”
Leavitt said the unnamed person referenced in the emails was Giuffre, who accused then-Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually abusing her as a minor before her death by suicide in April. Andrew, recently stripped of his title and removed from royal residences by King Charles III, has denied Giuffre’s allegations and said he does not recall meeting her.
Leavitt emphasized that Giuffre “repeatedly stated that President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ during their limited interactions.”
“The fact remains that President Trump expelled Jeffrey Epstein from his club decades ago because he was abusive toward female employees, including Giuffre,” the statement said. “These stories are merely bad-faith attempts to distract the public from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any reasonable American can see through this scam as a diversion from reopening our government.”
Requests for comment were sent to Wolff, Maxwell’s attorney David Markus, and representatives of Giuffre’s family.
Maxwell’s DOJ interview
Maxwell, interviewed by the DOJ deputy in July, repeatedly denied witnessing any sexual misconduct involving Trump.
“I have never seen the President in any type of massage,” Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, according to the interview transcript. “I never observed the President in any inappropriate circumstances. The President never behaved inappropriately toward anyone. In my interactions with him, he was a gentleman in every respect.”
Giuffre spoke publicly after the initial investigation concluded with Epstein receiving an 18-month sentence in Florida after a secret plea deal that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution, pleading guilty instead to relatively minor state charges of procuring a minor for prostitution. He was released in 2009.
In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre said she was a teenage spa worker at Mar-a-Lago when Maxwell approached her in 2000.
Maxwell’s British high-profile attorney argued that she should never be tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls for Epstein’s sexual abuse. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence, though she has been transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security facility in Texas following her interview with Blanche.
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