(CNN) — Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender whose death by suicide has spawned intense scrutiny of the high-profile people he knew, mentioned Donald Trump by name multiple times in private correspondence over the last 15 years with an associate and an author in Trump’s orbit, according to newly released emails from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
The emails to longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking after Epstein’s death, and the author Michael Wolff include conversations in which Epstein asserts Trump spent significant time with a woman whom Oversight Democrats describe as a victim of Epstein’s sex trafficking. The emails also include a message in which Epstein asserts Trump “knew about the girls” — seemingly in reference to Trump’s claim that he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club for poaching young women who worked there, according to the newly released emails.
The emails were released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who obtained them after subpoenaing Epstein’s estate earlier this year. Trump did not receive or send any of the messages, which largely predated his time as president, and he has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or Maxwell.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Democrats on the House Oversight Committee for releasing the messages, claiming the members “selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
“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,” Leavitt said.
Wolff told CNN: “I don’t quite remember the context. But I was engaged then in an in-depth conversation with Epstein about his relationship with Trump and this seems to be part of that conversation.”
In one email dated April 2, 2011, which CNN has independently reviewed, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.”
Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”
GOP members of the House Oversight committee identified the person as Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent survivors who died by suicide in April, and accused Democrats of hiding her name because she had not alleged Trump to have done anything wrong.
In her book, Giuffre writes that her father, who was maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago in 2000, got her a job as a locker room attendant. She wrote: “Trump couldn’t have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic that I was there. ‘Do you like kids?’ he asked. ‘Do you babysit at all?’ He explained that he owned several houses next to the resort that he lent to friends, many of whom had children who needed tending.”
She does not accuse Trump of wrongdoing in the book, “Nobody’s Girl.”
About three years before the email – in June 2008 – Epstein had been sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security prison after pleading guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18. He was released from prison in July 2009, having served just 13 months. Years later, his plea deal would face media scrutiny, including from the Miami Herald, and face widespread criticism as being too lenient.
Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in an interview earlier this year that she “never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” and that she didn’t recall ever seeing Trump at Epstein’s house. She said she did witness the two men together in social settings.
“The President was never inappropriate with anybody,” Maxwell said. “In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
Trump’s relationship with Epstein has been under scrutiny amid a political firestorm in Washington over whether and when the federal government will release its files on the late sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019. The controversy heated up earlier this year when Trump’s own Justice Department declared that it stood by its previous conclusion that Epstein died by suicide and that it did not plan to provide any more information on the case.
That sparked an outcry in Congress and among some members of Trump’s own MAGA base, and it breathed life into efforts to pry loose new information. The House Oversight Committee successfully sought materials from the estate, and there is a separate effort underway in Congress to force a vote on compelling the release of more files from the US government. That effort will get a critical, 218th supporter when Rep. Adelita Grijalva is sworn in on Wednesday.
The latest release also included emails between Epstein and Wolff, including one from January 2019 during Trump’s first term and about seven months before Epstein died by suicide in prison.
According to the email reviewed by CNN, Epstein wrote to Wolff apparently to address Trump’s claim that he asked Epstein to resign his membership at the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club.
“trump said he asked me to resign,” Epstein wrote, adding, “never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
The White House has said Trump barred Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club “for being a creep,” and Trump himself has said Epstein “stole” young women who worked at the Mar-a-Lago spa while explaining why their relationship ended. In her interview with Blanche, Maxwell denied recruiting at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s association with Epstein has long been public, though the U.S. president has denied any wrongdoing. He filed a libel lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and reporters who wrote a story about a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a note bearing Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman.
In a third email released by the Oversight committee and viewed by CNN Wednesday, Wolff — who published a book on Trump’s West Wing in 2018 — wrote Epstein with the subject line “heads up” on December 15, 2015. That was the day of a CNN Republican primary debate, but there is no mention of Epstein in the transcript.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you–either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff reportedly wrote to Epstein.
Epstein, according to the email, responded, “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
Wolff answered, “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. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
Wolff has indicated publicly that he has interviewed Epstein, and The Daily Beast has reported it obtained recordings in which Epstein spoke at length to the author about Trump and claimed the two were close friends. Trump’s camp has called the recordings “false smears,” according to the Daily Beast.
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