House Democrats on Wednesday released emails that they say raise new questions about former President Donald Trump’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein and what Trump may have known about Epstein’s abuse of underage girls. The disclosure coincided with the swearing-in of new Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva, which shifted the House balance and set the stage for a vote on releasing all unclassified Epstein-related records — something both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have resisted.
The emails, exchanged between Epstein, author Michael Wolff, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking — include a 2019 message in which Epstein wrote to Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.” The precise meaning of the statement is unclear.
Trump has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. He has acknowledged having been friends with Epstein before their falling out.
Grijalva, sworn in seven weeks after winning a special election in Arizona, said her induction allows the House to force a vote on releasing the unclassified documents. “It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration,” she said. The vote is scheduled for next week.
Among the emails released, a 2011 message from Epstein to Maxwell described Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked” and noted that Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims, whose name was redacted. Republicans also released 20,000 documents related to Epstein, many mentioning Trump, though often in the context of his political career or allegations of sexual behavior. One email referenced a 20-year-old girlfriend “given to Donald” in 1993 and mentioned photos of “Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” though it is unclear whether Epstein was joking.
Trump accused Democrats of using the emails to distract from the record 43-day government shutdown. “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything to deflect from how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown,” he wrote on Truth Social.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails prove nothing and stressed that President Trump did nothing wrong. She suggested that the redaction of the victim’s name was because the individual was Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April and had described Trump as friendly without alleging wrongdoing in her posthumous memoir.
The Epstein case has been politically sensitive, even among Trump supporters, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll in October showing only 40% of Republicans approving of Trump’s handling of the files. Trump and other officials reportedly asked Republican Representatives Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace to remove their names from a petition forcing the vote on releasing the documents, but both refused. Boebert said there was “no pressure” and remains a supporter of the petition, while Mace cited her own experience as a sexual assault survivor as the reason for staying on the petition.
