WASHINGTON, D.C.: Jeffrey Epstein claimed in a 2019 email to a journalist that Donald Trump "knew about the girls," according to documents released on November 12. However, it remains unclear what Trump allegedly knew or whether it related to Epstein's criminal activities.
The White House accused Democrats of leaking the emails to smear the president after members of the House Oversight Committee released three messages referencing Trump. One 2011 email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell claimed that Trump had "spent hours" at his home with one of the sex trafficking victims.
The release of the emails appeared aimed at reviving questions about Trump's past friendship with Epstein and whether he had any knowledge of the financier's alleged exploitation of underage girls. Trump has consistently denied knowing anything about Epstein's crimes and said their relationship ended long before Epstein's 2019 arrest.
Democrats redacted the victim's name from the 2011 email, but Republicans later identified her as Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of arranging sexual encounters with several powerful men. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Giuffre, who died earlier this year, repeatedly stated that Trump was not among her abusers. In court testimony, she said under oath that she didn't believe Trump had any knowledge of Epstein's crimes. In her memoir, she recalled meeting Trump only once while working as a spa attendant at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. She said he was friendly, introduced by her father, who also worked there, and even offered to help her find babysitting jobs.
Trump "couldn't have been friendlier," Giuffre wrote.
Former members of Epstein's staff have also testified that while Trump occasionally visited Epstein's home, they never witnessed any inappropriate behavior by him.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of "selectively leaking emails" to create a "fake narrative to smear President Trump."
Trump himself dismissed the matter on his Truth Social platform, saying Democrats were "trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax again" to distract from political setbacks, including the recent government shutdown.
"There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else," Trump wrote, urging Republicans to focus on reopening the government and addressing the nation's problems.
Trump has previously claimed he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago years ago after learning that Epstein had tried to recruit club employees, including Giuffre, to work for him. "We don't want you taking our people," Trump said he told Epstein at the time.
Shortly after Democrats released the emails mentioning Trump, Republicans on the committee published an additional 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein's estate. These included numerous emails Epstein wrote to journalists over the years, some of which criticized Trump's rise in politics.
Leavitt reiterated that Giuffre had "repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever." She said the latest disclosures were "bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump's accomplishments" and insisted that "any American with common sense sees right through this hoax."
