Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship is well-documented and goes back decades – but it’s been brought back under the microscope after explosive emails were released today.
In a statement, US House Democrats explained they are reviewing 23,000 documents released by Epstein’s estate.
The three emails that have been publicly disclosed claim that the US President allegedly ‘spent hours’ at the billionaire’s mansion with a victim of sex trafficking, who the White House has named as Virginia Giuffre.
In response, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails were ‘selectively leaked to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.’
She added: ‘The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and “couldn’t have been friendlier” to her in their limited interactions.
‘The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre.
‘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.’
Trump has always emphatically denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
The two businessmen flew between New York and Palm Beach together regularly, partying at Mar-a-Lago Club and eating together at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan.
Archive footage from 1992 showed Trump and Epstein standing to the side of the dance floor at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, pointing out women as they danced.
In the same year, Florida businessman George Houraney organised a ‘calendar girl’ competition at Trump’s request – but when he arranged for the 28 girls to fly in, he found out the only attendees would be Trump and Epstein.
Speaking to New York Magazine in 2002, Trump said: ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years, terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with.’
‘It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.’
But their relationship seemed to sour, apparently becoming rivals in 2004 after they competed to buy property in Palm Beach.
Here’s all you need to know about Trump, Epstein, their friendship, and the newly released emails.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender accused of abusing and trafficking underage girls.
He was convicted in 2008 of multiple charges of sexual abuse of minors, but he avoided federal prosecution after taking a plea deal.
In total, he spent 13 months in prison and was allowed to leave on work-release.
Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking. His death was blamed on the negligence and misconduct of prison guards.
At the time, Trump was branded ‘deeply irresponsible’ for sharing a conspiracy theory on X suggesting Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in his death.
One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Giuffre, publicly claimed Epstein and Maxwell forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew in 2001 — an allegation the Duke of York has consistently denied.
It is alleged that many of Epstein’s crimes were carried out on his private island, Little St James, in the Virgin Islands, which he travelled to and from by private jet.
What has Trump said about Epstein?
After Epstein’s arrest, Trump distanced himself from the sex offender, saying in 2019: ‘I was not a fan. I had a falling out with him a long time ago.’
He had much friendlier words for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s close confidante, when she was arrested in 2020, saying: ‘I wish her well, whatever it is.’
Maxwell is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for grooming teenage girls to be abused by Epstein.
Trump insisted he had never been on Epstein’s plane or private island, but flight logs released during the trial suggested the US president flew on Epstein’s private jet seven times.
His ex-wife, Marla Maples, their daughter Tiffany, and his son Eric had also been listed as passengers in the logs.
What are the Epstein files?
The Epstein files refer to all of the evidence gathered by investigators working on the criminal cases against Epstein and his associates.
Many of those court documents – including flight logs for Epstein’s private jet – have already been made public, but many more remain sealed, raising speculation over who else could be implicated.
When Trump returned to the White House, he released some of Epstein’s files and promised more would follow, saying he had ‘no problem’ making the documents public.
The FBI said it was reviewing ‘tens of thousands’ of documents relating to Epstein, and these are being redacted to protect the identity of victims and any other ongoing investigations.
What do the newly released emails say?
On Wednesday, a series of images were posted on X by the US House Democrats, which they said were emails between Maxwell, Epstein and write Michael Wolff about Trump.
One email between Maxwell and Epstein in 2011 alleges that Trump ‘spent hours at my house’ with an unnamed victim of sex trafficking.
Epstein told Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges related to facilitating his crimes, ‘I want you to realise that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.’
‘I have been thinking about that’, Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for grooming teenage girls to be abused by Epstein, wrote back.
In another email between Epstein and Wolff in 2019, Epstein claims that Trump ‘knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.’
Other messages between Wolff and Epstein appear to discuss how Trump should answer questions about his friendship with Epstein in an upcoming CNN interview and if they can ‘craft an answer’ for him.
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