House Democrats on the Oversight Committee released three emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that reference President Trump, adding to a batch of roughly 23,000 additional documents under committee review, Oversight Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said. The disclosures have renewed scrutiny of the ties between Epstein and Trump.
One document, a 2015 exchange between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, discusses how to handle a CNN interview with Trump. Wolff wrote, “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
A 2011 email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell describes Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and says Trump spent “hours at my house” with one of the women later identified as an alleged sex‑trafficking victim. A 2019 message from Epstein to Wolff states, “of course [Trump] knew about the girls as he asked Ghislane to stop.” The committee’s release redacted portions of the messages; NPR has not independently verified the documents’ authenticity.
The newly released emails follow other items Democrats disclosed last September, including more than 200 pages from an Epstein birthday book dating back decades that contains a lewd drawing and what appears to be a note signed by Trump. The president has repeatedly denied any meaningful relationship with Epstein and has disputed the birthday book’s authenticity. In July, he said he and Epstein had a falling out after Epstein hired young female employees who had worked at the Mar‑a‑Lago spa.
The timing of the release coincided with the House reconvening to consider votes tied to reopening the government after a lengthy shutdown. House Democrats and four Republicans have pushed for a vote to release additional Epstein‑related records. House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed that vote by keeping the chamber out of session for weeks and by refusing to swear in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona; once sworn in, Grijalva is expected to sign a bipartisan petition that would bring the number of signatures to the 218 required to force a vote.
For the Trump campaign, the continuing disclosures present a political challenge. Trump has made exposing hidden information about Epstein and alleged abuses part of his rhetoric, yet the documents released so far have continued to fuel questions about what he knew and the nature of his interactions with Epstein.