Jefrrey Epstein is back in the American political scene. After a few weeks where media attention had shifted to other topics, from boat bombings in the Caribbean to elections in New York, the Democratic Party has brought back the case of the pedophile financier to the forefront by publishing a series of Epstein's emails from between 2011 and 2019, in which he discusses his relationship with Trump and the victims, young women he provided for sexual services, or possible strategies to benefit if Trump ended up becoming the President of the United States as he had a "debt" with him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later stated that the Democrats had "selectively leaked emails to liberal media outlets to create a false narrative to defame President Trump (...) these are malicious attempts to divert attention from President Trump's historic achievements, and any sensible American clearly sees this deception and maneuver to prevent the reopening of the Government," she added.
All this is revealed in a series of emails recently obtained and published this Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee by members of the opposition party. Those responsible for Epstein's estate and management have handed over nearly 23,000 documents to Congress, as explained by Congressman Robert Garcia from California. Among them is correspondence between Epstein and his ex-girlfriend and partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her involvement in Epstein's sex trafficking ring. The Trump Justice Department is now collaborating with her in an attempt to exonerate the President. Maxwell, who has spent hours behind closed doors with the Justice Department's second-in-command and has been transferred to a minimum-security prison despite the severity of her sentence, was proven to have provided women, sometimes underage, to Epstein.
To date, no illegal activity by Trump has been proven or that he participated in Epstein's sexual parties with minors, something that has been an obsession of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) universe for years, founded by Trump. They believe, or believed, that Democrats, especially Bill Clinton, had committed all kinds of crimes and that there is a huge conspiracy to cover it up and protect them. A conspiracy that involved Epstein's murder in prison, probably with the collaboration of foreign intelligence services.
The MAGA movement assumed that with Trump in power, everything would be revealed. In fact, the FBI director and his deputy were two of the main proponents of these conspiracies. But everything changed with Trump's arrival. The President and his team have stated that there is nothing, that there are no lists of Epstein's clients or people allegedly extorted by him and Maxwell. Talking about the issue is a waste of time and should stop immediately. But that stance, of course, has had the opposite effect, sparking even more interest, much to Trump's frustration and anger.
The emails from this batch do not prove anything concrete, but they add fuel to the fire. The President has been downplaying his relationship with Epstein for months, even years, saying that they broke ties long ago, that they were not friends, and did not do things together. Despite numerous photos of them at parties. Or the publication of an erotic drawing that Trump allegedly gave Epstein as a cartoon for his birthday, something he denied. He denied it before the image was published and maintains it now, stating that it is not his signature or dedication. And that he does not draw cartoons, although there are numerous examples of sketches he made on other occasions for charitable purposes. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine: "I've known Jeff for 15 years. A great guy. It's fun to be with him. It's even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are quite young."
In an email from 2011, Epstein wrote to his main collaborator, who is currently in prison: "I want you to realize that the dog that didn't bark is Trump. [The victim] spent hours at my house with him; it was never mentioned to him". Maxwell responded: "I've been thinking about that." The key part is the one censored in black in the emails, hiding the name of the victim who allegedly spent hours with the future president. The Committee's Republicans who released the material identified the victim, confirming it was Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April of this year. Why did they do it? Because in 2016, during a trial, Giuffre was asked if Trump had witnessed the sexual abuse of minors at Epstein's house, to which she replied: "I don't think Donald Trump was involved in anything," she said at the time.
In another email sent to writer Michael Wolff on January 31, 2019, Epstein explicitly mentions the club that the then-president had near his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago: "Trump said he asked me to resign, although I was never a member. Of course, he knew about the girls, as he asked Ghislaine to stop," the text says.
Wolff is a well-known journalist who has published biographies of powerful people, such as Rupert Murdoch, and essays on Trump's first presidency. Additionally, Wolff has claimed to have over 100 hours of recorded interviews with Epstein over the years. He appears in many more emails advising the financier on his strategy towards the future president, sometimes suggesting that he distance himself to gain credibility.
The third email, also between Wolff and Epstein in 2015, when Trump was entering politics and fighting to win the Republican Party's primaries, mentions the possibility that CNN was investigating the pedophile millionaire's relationships and planning to ask Trump about his relationship. The same night as the email, CNN organized the fifth debate in that campaign but ultimately chose not to bring up the topic.
In his response to Wolff, Epstein asks: "If we could prepare a response for him, what do you think it should be?". Wolff suggests that Trump "handle it on his own." And that "if he says he wasn't on the plane or at the house, that gives you a valuable advantage in public relations and political capital. You can harm him in a way that could potentially benefit you or, if it really seems like he could win [the primaries], you could save him by creating a debt. It is also possible that he simply says: 'Jeffrey is a great guy and a victim of political correctness, something that will not be tolerated in my Presidency'", the message concludes.
This discusses how if Trump denies his connection or claims he never traveled on Epstein's plane (despite records showing otherwise) or never visited his Caribbean island, and the financier does not publicly deny it, it would give him a powerful card, a favor to cash in if Trump hypothetically ended up in the White House. As it eventually happened.
In conversations recorded by Wolff in 2017, Jeffrey Epstein described himself as Donald Trump's "closest friend" for a decade and claimed to have intimate knowledge of his sexual preferences, including deceiving his best friends. The financier boasted of his closeness to Trump and his now-wife Melania, even stating that "the first time he slept with her was on my plane," explicitly nicknamed the Lolita Express.