By Isabella McHugh
Staff Writer
The Democratic House Oversight Committee recently released emails from the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in which he claimed Donald Trump “knew about the girls” he abused, according to AP News.
Three emails that pertained to Trump were released, according to CNBC, and the New York Times later published the contents of the three emails.
In the first from 2011, Epstein wrote the “victim spent hours at my house with him,” implying that Trump could have had an inappropriate interaction with her. This email was sent to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator.
Epstein further wrote that “He [Trump], has never once been mentioned.” In other words, suspicion of misconduct on Trump’s part has never been looked into by officials.
There is, however, no sufficient evidence to prove Trump’s involvement with Epstein’s victim.
Another email features author and journalist Michael Wolff along with Epstein strategizing Epstein’s appearance around Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign. Wolff told Epstein to let Trump “hang himself,” meaning if Trump said he never visited Epstein’s house or plane he could use that against Trump as leverage for his own standing.
On the other hand, if Trump did well in the election, Wolff told Epstein to protect him so Trump would owe him.
The third email was from 2019, when Epstein was once again facing criminal charges. That same year he reportedly died by suicide while being held in federal custody, according to NPR.
In the message from Epstein to Wolff, he stated “of course he knew about the girls, as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” This email again suggests that Trump knew more about Epstein’s schemes than he has previously stated publicly.
Once again, there isn’t evidence proving this to be true. However, the email contents can be potentially politically damaging for Donald Trump.
The Republicans responded to these emails by making what they said are 20,000 pages from the Epstein estate that were investigated during the case, according to NBC.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC that the Democratic party was “selectively” leaking these emails “to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
She further stated, “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.”
The email from 2011 that was released did not mention the victim’s name. Republicans on the Oversight committee afterward said it was Virginia Giuffre who died by suicide earlier this year. She accused Epstein of “arranging for her to have sexual encounters with a number of his rich and powerful friends,” wrote AP News.
She always claimed Trump never victimized her, and “couldn’t have been friendlier” according to AP News. Giuffre met Trump at Mar-a-Lago, one of his private clubs. She was introduced to him by her father.
Giuffre testified in court saying that she didn’t believe Trump knew about Epstein’s sexual misconduct with the underage girls.
Trump said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, his private club because he was “taking people who worked for [him],” according to AP News.
The New York Times writes that a Republican committee spokeswoman criticized the Democratic party for producing “click bait that is not grounded in the facts,” and further stated, “The Epstein Estate has produced over 20,000 pages of documents on Thursday, yet Democrats are once again intentionally withholding records that name Democrat officials.”
