Epstein documents: What to know as Trump mentioned in newly released emails
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Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva will provide the 218th signature lawmakers need to force a vote on ordering the Justice Department to release all the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
What to know about today's Jeffrey Epstein developments
- EPSTEIN EMAILS: House Oversight Committee Democrats released emails from the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and journalist Michael Wolff. In one email, Epstein wrote: “Trump said he asked me to resign (from Mar-a-Lago), never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
- GOP RELEASE: House Republicans followed the Democrats’ release with their own: 20,000 pages of documents they said they obtained from the Epstein estate during their investigation into his case.
- WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused House Democrats of “selectively” leaking emails to the media “to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” and called news coverage “bad-faith efforts to distract” from the president’s accomplishments and the movement in Congress to reopen the federal government.
- GRIJALVA SWEARING-IN: Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva is was sworn in today, giving Democrats the 218th signature they need to force a House vote on whether to order the Justice Department to release all the Epstein case files.
Accuser calls for the full release of the Epstein files
Annie Farmer, a prominent Epstein accuser, called for Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act after some documents were released today.
In a statement, Farmer said that "survivors deserve more than a trickle of information" as the public is left with more questions.
"The estimated 1,000 women and girls who were harmed by Epstein and his associates deserve full transparency, as do the American people," Farmer said.
Farmer has alleged that in 1996, when she was 16, she was flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and was assaulted. She called Maxwell a "sexual predator who groomed and abused" her during an emotional statement at a 2020 bail hearing for Maxwell.
Epstein was advised to let Trump 'hang himself' about their relationship
In a 2015 email released by the Democrats, author Michael Wolff informed Epstein that he heard CNN intended to ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein. Epstein responded by asking, “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff responded. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.”
House Democrats released emails from Jeffrey Epstein that referenced Trump. House Oversight Committee
Wolff told ABC News on Wednesday he “was in an in-depth conversation with Epstein at that time about his relationship with Donald Trump.”
“I was trying at that time to get Epstein to talk about his relationship with Trump, and actually, he proved to be an enormously valuable source to me,” Wolff told ABC News. “Part of the context of this is that I was pushing Epstein at that point to go public with what he knew about Trump.”
Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva sworn in, to be final signature forcing Epstein files vote
WASHINGTON — More than seven weeks after her special election victory, Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva stood on the House floor and took the oath of office Wednesday, marking the end of a bitter standoff with GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, who had refused to seat her during the record government shutdown. ...
During the 43-day shutdown — the longest in American history — Democrats claimed that Johnson was refusing to seat Grijalva to prevent the release of the Justice Department’s files from its Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The Epstein matter has plagued President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill, as many in his MAGA base clamor for more transparency concerning the investigation.
Grijalva represents the 218th signature on a bipartisan discharge petition, which would allow rank-and-file lawmakers to bypass Johnson and his leadership team and force a floor vote to release files. She has said that signing the petition will be one of her first acts as a member of Congress.
Doing so will force the House to hold a vote in the coming weeks to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files related to its investigation into Epstein. But the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate or be signed into law by Trump, who has personally urged Republicans to block the discharge push.
Adelita Grijalva on Oct. 14 on Capitol Hill. Francis Chung / POLITICO via AP Images
Epstein on Trump: 'I know how dirty Donald is'
The larger set of documents released by Republicans on the committee contained an August 2018 email exchange between former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler and Epstein.
Ruemmler had sent Epstein a link to a New York Times op-ed that referenced former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who had just pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws related to hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
In one email from the exchange, Epstein wrote: “you see, I know how dirty donald is. My guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. What it means to have your fixer flip.”
Epstein survivor calls release of emails 'step forward'
Danielle Bensky said she was 17 and a budding ballerina in 2004 when Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her at his Manhattan mansion.
That was also the year that Trump claims he ended his friendship with Epstein.
“I think the release of the latest emails is another step forward for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein who have been fighting for years to get the truth out," Bensky told NBC News.
"We have been banging on the transparency drum for so long," she said. "I know that there are politics involved, but we should all be on the side of releasing all of the Epstein files once and for all.”
Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump is the 'dog that hasn’t barked'
In an email released by Democrats that Epstein allegedly sent to Maxwell in 2011, Epstein says Trump “spent hours” with someone the committee says was a victim. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges in connection with Epstein.
“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there,” the email said.
House Democrats released emails from Jeffrey Epstein that referenced Trump. House Oversight committee
Asked during a press briefing today whether Trump has ever spent hours with a victim at Epstein’s house, Leavitt said, “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
Trump says Democrats 'are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again'
Trump blamed Democrats for the renewed focus on his ties to Epstein and warned Republicans that they should focus on reopening the federal government.
"The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post this afternoon.
"Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap," the president continued, arguing that Democrats cost the U.S. $1.5 trillion as a result of the government shutdown.
"There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!" he wrote.
In addition to documents Democrats on the House Oversight Committee flagged today that spotlight Trump's previous relationship with Epstein, Republicans on the committee also released 20,000 documents from Epstein's estate.
Epstein on Trump: 'Of course he knew about the girls'
In a 2019 email released by the committee today, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.”
“[REDACTED] mara lago. [REDACTED],” the email, sent several months before Epstein’s death, reads. “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
House Democrats released emails from Jeffrey Epstein that referenced Trump. House Oversight committee
The email was apparently referencing Trump and Epstein’s soured relationship. The two were friends for years, but the White House said earlier this year that Trump booted Epstein “out of his club for being a creep.”
“He took people that worked for me. And I told him, ‘Don’t do it anymore.’ And he did it,” Trump told reporters in July, adding, “I said, ‘Stay the hell out of here.’”
White House: Epstein emails ‘prove absolutely nothing'’
Asked whether Trump has ever spent hours with a victim at Epstein’s house, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
She was also asked about a CNN report that indicated that the White House would meet with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has signed on to a petition to force the House to consider compelling the release of the Epstein files.
“Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please?” she responded.
Bipartisan duo expects to have signatures today to force a vote to release Epstein files
After a weekslong delay, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., today are on the cusp of securing enough signatures to bypass GOP leaders and force a floor vote to compel the Justice Department to release all the files in its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., at the Capitol today. Francis Chung / Politico via AP
Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz. — who won the seat of her late father in a September special election — has vowed she’ll be the 218th signature on Massie and Khanna’s “discharge petition” after she is sworn into office at around 4 p.m. ET today.
That number represents a simple majority of the entire 435-member House chamber. Under House rules, once a discharge petition hits that magic number of 218 signatures, the House must act on it, though seven legislative days must pass before a vote can be called.
House Republicans release what they say are 20,000 pages of Epstein documents
After House Democrats released several emails from Epstein to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and journalist Michael Wolff that mention Trump, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee made public what they said are 20,000 pages of documents they obtained from the Epstein estate during their investigation into his case.
NBC News is reading through the released documents and will report on their contents.
White House responds to newly released Epstein emails
In a statement to NBC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of “selectively” leaking emails “to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
She added, “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.”
NBC News has also reached out to lawyers for Maxwell and for Michael Wolff, the journalist to whom some of the emails were addressed.
Epstein wrote Trump ‘knew about the girls’ and referenced Mar-a-Lago in newly released emails
Epstein referenced Trump in emails to his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and a journalist, claiming in one that Trump “knew about the girls,” according to emails released by House Democrats.
Democrats on the House Oversight committee released three email chains, sent between 2011 and 2019, saying the documents came from the convicted sex offender’s estate as part of the committee’s investigation into the Epstein case.
Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva to be sworn in today, nearly two months after she was elected
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is scheduled to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva today — nearly two months after the Arizona Democrat won her late father’s seat in a special election.
Johnson has consistently said he would administer the oath of office to Grijalva when Democrats vote to reopen the government. The Senate passed a bipartisan measure to do just that Monday night, with the House expected to vote on the legislation this evening.
When Grijalva is sworn in, the House breakdown will be 219 Republicans to 214 Democrats.
Grijalva is expected to be the 218th signature on the discharge petition to force a House floor vote requiring the Justice Department to publicly release all the files related to the Epstein case. There is still an additional waiting period of seven legislative days before any of the signers of the petition can force a vote on it. The House speaker then has two legislative days before he must call up the measure for a vote on the floor.
