‘He knew about the girls’: New Epstein emails allege Trump was aware of conduct

3 months ago 7

New York: Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein told his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell that Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of his victims, and told a journalist that Trump “knew about the girls”, according to new documents released by Democrats in the US Congress.

The US president, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s but says the pair fell out in the 2000s, has always emphatically denied knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell’s sex-trafficking operations.

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, in 1997.

The three emails released on Wednesday morning, US time, were selected by Democrats from a tranche supplied by Epstein’s estate to the House Oversight Committee under subpoena. All three are from after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 under a plea deal.

In the first email, from April 2011, Epstein tells Maxwell: “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [REDACTED] spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there.”

The second email, from December 2015, involves author and journalist Michael Wolff informing Epstein that CNN might be planning to ask him about his ties with Trump during a television interview. Trump was, at that time, seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Epstein replies: “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”

Wolff then suggests that Epstein should “let him [Trump] hang himself”. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency,” Wolff says. “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.”

The third email, from 2019 - months before Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges - again involves correspondence from Epstein to Wolff.

“trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein wrote.

The redacted email also made reference to Mar-a-Lago - Trump’s private club in Florida - and an Epstein victim.

The new documents are certain to prompt renewed interest in the fallout from the Epstein saga, which raged in Washington earlier this year as Democrats - and a slew of Republicans - demanded the Trump administration release more files from the FBI investigation into Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring.

Responding to the release of the emails, White House Peess Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails created “a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.

“These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again,” Leavitt said.

Epstein was never convicted on those charges, but his long-time associate and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

It was not clear whether the emails selectively released by the Democrats were part of longer email chains, and the lack of context makes it harder to ascertain their significance. But the Democrats said the documents struck a blow against “the White House’s Epstein cover-up”.

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president,” said Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee.

Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, during a hearing on September 18, 2025.

“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims.”

Members of the House of Representatives were returning to Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) after a long hiatus for a vote to reopen the US federal government.

More to come