House releases Epstein documents mentioning Trump, president calls it a hoax

The late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein discussed President Donald Trump in emails released Wednesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Democrats on the committee released three emails Wednesday that Epstein’s estate had provided to them — prompting Republicans to release their own 20,000-page stash of Epstein documents hours later, while the White House accused Democrats of seeking to distract from the government shutdown.

In response, Trump announced Friday that he would ask the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s relationships with former President Bill Clinton, former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and others.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia scam, with all the arrows pointing at the Democrats,” Trump said in an article published Friday on Truth Social.

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Meanwhile, Clinton denied ever visiting Epstein’s island and wrote in his 2024 memoir “Citizen” that he wished they had never met. Clinton has not been accused of engaging in any sexual misconduct in connection with Epstein or his victims.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both federally charged with sex trafficking. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

The documents released Wednesday include emails between Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as correspondence with author Michael Wolff, Kathy Ruemmler, former President Barack Obama’s White House legal adviser, among others, in which Epstein mentions Trump.

“I want you to realize that dog that didn’t bark is Trump… (VICTIM) spent hours at my house with him, he was never mentioned. Police Chief. etc. I’m 75% there,” Epstein said in an April 2011 email to Maxwell, which was provided along with other correspondence to the committee by Epstein’s estate in response to a subpoena request.

“I thought about it…” Maxwell said in response.

The “VICTIM” mentioned in the emails is redacted, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News that it was a reference to Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of facilitating sexual encounters between her and some of her influential friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Giuffre committed suicide in April, but said in her memoir completed before her death and published in October that she met Trump once at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and that he “couldn’t have been friendlier.” She did not accuse Trump of any misconduct.

Emails released by both parties to the Oversight Committee lack context and are filled with redactions.

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In another 2019 email, Epstein told Wolff that “of course he knew about the girls when he asked Ghislaine to stop,” referring to Trump. The president previously told reporters in July that he barred Epstein from the presidential golf club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, because Epstein continued to “take people who worked for me.”

Additionally, it is unclear from the exchange whether “girls” referred to minors or not.

Author Andrew Lownie claims that Prince Andrew’s connection to Jeffrey Epstein dates back to 1991. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)

In a separate exchange between Wolff and Epstein from 2015, the two men discussed the possibility of CNN asking Trump about his relationship with Epstein.

“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff said in an email to Epstein. “If he says he didn’t get on the plane or at home, then that gives you valuable political and PR currency. You could hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive profit for you, or, if it really looks like he might win, you could bail him out, thereby generating debt.”

Wolff is an author who has written four books about Trump’s political career, including “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” which was published in 2018 and painted an unflattering picture of Trump’s early days in office during his first term. The White House at the time called it “trashy tabloid fiction.”

Hours after Democrats initially released the documents, Republicans on the committee revealed their own stack of documents, which included emails from Epstein in which he also discussed Trump.

Other email exchanges released Wednesday included correspondence between Epstein and Ruemmler, who is now the chief legal officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The White House ignored the post, calling it a “distraction.” (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

Ruemmler shared a link to a New York Times opinion piece in August 2018, which detailed alleged secret payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep silent about an alleged affair with Trump. Ruemmler said she thought Epstein would find the article “interesting.”

“I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein responded via email.

Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the alleged secret payments. He continues to deny the affair and maintains his innocence, calling the affair a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

Ruemmler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

In another email to Summers in 2017, Epstein said that while he had met some “very bad people,” none had been “as bad as Trump.”

“Not a single decent cell in his body… so yes, it’s dangerous,” Epstein said.

Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Even if the documents themselves are authentic, Epstein’s statements in the emails remain unverified and uncorroborated. They do not allege wrongdoing on Trump’s part; they only show that Epstein is referring to him. Trump has not faced formal accusations of misconduct related to Epstein, and no law enforcement records link Trump to Epstein’s crimes.

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The White House ignored the post, calling it a “distraction.”

“These emails literally prove nothing,” White House press secretary Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “The liberal media is desperately trying to use this Democratic diversion to talk about something other than the Democrats’ total defeat by President Trump in the fight against the shutdown.”

“These emails literally prove nothing,” White House press secretary Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital on Thursday. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Trump also said in a social media post Wednesday that Democrats were seeking to reignite discussion of the Epstein case to distract from their role in shutting down the government.

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“The Democrats are trying to roll back the Jeffrey Epstein hoax because they will do anything to distract from their poor record on shutdowns and so many other issues,” Trump said Wednesday. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into this trap.”

“There should be no deviation toward Epstein or anything else, and all Republicans involved should be focused solely on opening up our country and undoing the massive damage Democrats have done!” » Trump said.

Trump’s ties to Epstein came under scrutiny after Trump’s Justice Department and FBI announced they would not unseal investigative documents regarding Epstein and that their investigation into the matter was closed.

Additionally, the agencies said they did not detect a list of sexual predators with ties to Epstein and concluded that no new individuals could face charges.

Meanwhile, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Epstein associate Maxwell in Florida in July. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Epstein associate Maxwell in Florida in July, and the Justice Department released transcripts of their interview. In the records, Maxwell claimed she did not see Trump behave inappropriately.

“I have never seen the president in an inappropriate context in any way,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript released by the Justice Department. “The president was never inappropriate with anyone. In the time I was with him, he was a gentleman in every way.”

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Epstein committed suicide while awaiting trial on federal charges in 2019. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking of a minor and is serving a 20-year sentence.

Patrick Ward of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.