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Before he was elected in 2016, Donald Trump bragged about grabbing women by the pu**y and barging into rooms of partially dressed young pageant contestants. A jury concluded he assaulted E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room. So nothing that’s in the Epstein emails is a surprise. It’s confirmation.
The emails, documents obtained from Epstein’s estate, were released today by House Democrats. Meanwhile, the swearing in of Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, after a record-busting 50-day wait, means that there are enough signatures for the discharge petition the House will use to direct the Justice Department to turn over the Epstein case files to them.
Among the emails Epstein wrote, there is one from back in 2011, when there would have been little incentive to fabricate details about Trump, to his now-convicted coconspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, stating that Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims. Although the name is redacted in emails released by Democrats, House Republicans, apparently unconcerned with protecting confidential victim information, say it was Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year. Giuffre had said Trump never abused her. We may never learn the truth. It’s impossible to discredit an email between Epstein and Maxwell written all those years ago with no expectation it would ever come to light. More recent comments—those by victims who might fear retaliation and those by convicted felons seeking favorable treatment—could have been made in a situation where there was an interest in shading the truth, unlike this older email. “He has never once been mentioned,” Epstein said in 2011, referring to Trump.
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Given everything we know about Donald Trump, everything he himself has said about girls and women, it’s hard to envision what innocent behavior he would have been engaged in for “hours” spent with a victim of abuse at the scene of the crime—Epstein’s home, where sexual abuse was rampant.
In a 2019 email with a journalist, Epstein claimed that Trump “knew about the girls” because he “asked [G]hislaine to stop.” That could be a reference to reports that Maxwell acquired girls who worked for Trump in locker rooms and elsewhere on the premises at Mar-a-Lago for Epstein and others.
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The House obtained these emails and others that Republicans released later in the day from Epstein’s estate. They are not the full FBI file that Congressional Democrats are trying to secure, with assistance from some Republicans who remember the president’s campaign promise to release the files.
Trump himself seems to have forgotten those promises. “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,” according to Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Note what this isn’t. It is not a denial.
In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine: “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.”
After Representative Grijalva was sworn in at 4:00 p.m. today, she voted on the Epstein discharge petition almost immediately. Speaker Mike Johnson, having just called the House back into session following the end of the shutdown, told reporters he would bring a resolution to release the Epstein files to a vote on the House floor next week.
It was rumored that the White House was applying pressure to the three Republican women who have signed on to the petition, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Nancy Mace. So far, none of them have indicated they will change their minds.
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The released emails are a good explanation for the favorable treatment Maxwell has received in federal prison after the soft touch interview she did with former Trump criminal defense lawyer and current Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Her transfer to a minimum security facility is unheard of for a convicted sex offender just beginning to serve a sentence in federal prison. Maxwell is reportedly preparing a petition requesting a pardon or commutation of her sentence. In a report, House Oversight Dems wrote, “Reports from prison staff also suggest Maxwell has received ‘concierge-style treatment’ at her new minimum-security prison camp, receiving customized meals and VIP treatment for her guests. Maxwell should be ineligible for incarceration at a minimum-security prison camp because she is a convicted sex offender.”
Maxwell’s interview testimony to Blanche seems to contradict her earlier emails with Epstein. For instance, she told Blanche Trump was never at Epstein’s house.
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Maxwell also told Blanche she never recruited girls from Mar-a-Lago.
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Todd Blanche would have had the emails Democrats released today available to him before interviewing Maxwell. The FBI had reviewed the files, and the FBI works for the Deputy AG. If Blanche had been sucker punched, sent in to interview Maxwell without being shown such highly relevant information, we would know it—he would have found a way to make that public rather than allowing the questions about him that are now arising to surface. Any competent prosecutor, and Blanche was well-trained in the Southern District of New York, would have questioned Maxwell directly about her email conversations with Epstein about Trump. And having reviewed those exchanges before questioning Maxwell, it would have been apparent when she was skirting the truth and follow up questions should have been asked. But Blanche didn’t do any of that. The transcripts from the Maxwell interviews are here if you want to read them further.