TRANSCRIPT:
Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have released email correspondence from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that raises fresh questions about Donald Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s alleged abuse.
The first items were three emails between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a writer, Michael Wolff that name Mr Trump and allege he spent hours at Epstein's house with a victim.
This is one email from 2011 that Epstein sent Maxwell.
“I want you to realise that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump… NAME REDACTED spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. Etc. I'm 75 per cent there.”
Here is a 2019 message to journalist Michael Wolff in which Epstein wrote:
“…of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
In one of the emails, Michael Wolff appears to suggest that Epstein attempt to make Mr Trump - who was then running for the Presidency - indebted to him.
“I think you should let him 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. 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. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
The House Oversight Committee's Republican majority has also released its own tranche of 23,000 documents, where Trump's name surfaces frequently - though typically in the context of his political career or allegations of sexual behaviour.
In one exchange, Epstein refers to a 20-year-old girlfriend he says he "gave to Donald" in 1993, and talks about photos of "Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen," though it is not clear whether he is joking.
One of the Democrat politicians behind the initial release of three emails is Suhas Subramanyam who represents Virginia in the U-S Congress.
He has told the BBC he's convinced they show that President Trump has something to hide.
"These emails though paint a clear picture of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell certainly knowing something about Trump that Trump doesn't want out."
At a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether Mr Trump ever spent hours at Epstein’s house with a victim.
She says the White House rejects the email release as being politically motivated.
"These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong. And what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach, and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.”
Trump has vehemently and consistently denied knowing about Epstein's sex trafficking.
He has said that he and Epstein were once friends before having a falling out.
Karoline Leavitt has further insisted the Trump administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever.
"In fact, this administration, the Department of Justice, has turned over tens of thousands of documents to the American people. We are cooperating and showing support for the House Oversight Committee. That's part of the reason you are seeing these documents that were released today because of the House Oversight Committee and Republicans' efforts to get these out to the public. ... So this administration has done more than any and it just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party."
To be clear, these released emails do not formally accuse President Trump of misconduct, and no criminal charge is implied.
But they do intensify calls for full transparency.
Illinois Governor J-B Pritzker - who is a Democrat - says the newly released emails will be devastating for Mr Trump, speculating that the president could seek distractions to shift attention.
“You know, with the many times that Donald Trump has tried to distract from the Epstein files and kept the Congress from releasing the Epstein files, I think we all knew that there was information in there that he didn't want people to see. ... I think we're gonna see a whole heck of a lot more. My great fear, of course, is that with the release of that information, which I think will be devastating for Trump, that he's gonna do everything in his power to distract. And what does that mean? I mean, he might take us to war with Venezuela just to get a distraction in the news and take it out of the headlines.”
The issue however is unlikely to go away any time soon.
The email disclosures have come on the day Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson, seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona.
Her long-delayed induction should pave the way to compel a House vote to release all unclassified records related to Epstein, something both Speaker Johnson and Mr Trump have resisted up to now.
Those records could include victim identities, flight logs, financial transactions and grand-jury materials.
She has confirmed she's willing to sign a petition to release those files, a measure sponsored by Republican Representative Thomas Massie, and already signed by GOP congresswomen and well-known Trump allies Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
