House Republicans released a massive trove of 23,000 pages of documents from the estate of convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday (Nov. 12) after months of delays, the New York Times reported.
The release came shortly after Democrats released emails suggesting President Donald Trump may have known more about Epstein’s sex-trafficking activities than previously admitted.
Detail of documents Epstein-Trump connection
The newly released materials were obtained by Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, through a subpoena issued in August. According to reports, the documents were released online just two hours after House Democrats released an email from Epstein in which he said Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims.
Political context
The Republican release appears to be aimed at countering criticism that the party withheld government files on Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Democrats release Epstein’s Trump-related emails
Democrats in Congress on Wednesday released emails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that appear to refer to President Donald Trump, sparking renewed scrutiny of the president’s ties to Epstein. The emails include correspondence with Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell and journalist Michael Wolff.
In one 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein wrote, “He obviously knew about the girls when he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
Another email, dated April 2, 2011, to Maxwell said: “I want you to realize that the dog that didn’t bark is Trump. (Redacted name) spent hours with him at my house… he was never mentioned.” Maxwell responded the same day, “I’ve thought about it.”
The name of the person in the email has been redacted but has been identified by House Democrats as Virginia Giuffre, who has publicly accused Epstein and others of sexual exploitation.
White House rejection
The White House quickly condemned the release, accusing Democrats of “selectively leaking” the emails to smear the president.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for treating his female employees, including Giuffre, as a creep. These stories are nothing more than bad faith attempts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and every sane American sees right through this deception.”
Leavitt also noted that Giuffre “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”
Giuffre’s account
In her memoir and previous court testimony, Giuffre said she met Trump only once when she worked as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago and did not accuse him of wrongdoing. She described him as “friendly” and recalled him offering to help her get a babysitting job.
Other Epstein household employees also testified under oath that when Trump visited Epstein’s home, they “did not see him behaving inappropriately.”
Maxwell’s statement
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in aiding and abetting Epstein’s crimes, told the Justice Department in July that she had never witnessed Trump in any inappropriate setting: “I’ve never actually seen the president in any type of massage. . . . The president has never been a good fit for anybody. In the times I’ve been with him, he’s been a gentleman in every way.”
Political context
The release of the emails comes amid an ongoing political debate over documents related to Epstein.
The Trump-Epstein connection has long been the subject of public and media scrutiny, particularly after Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting federal sex-trafficking charges.
