A phone message from Donald Trump, likely from November 2004, to Jeffrey Epstein. It was seized by Palm Beach police in a search of Epstein's home in 2005.

The House Democrats released emails on Nov. 12 from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in which he said President Donald Trump "knew about the girls."

The controversy around Epstein, including his relationship with Trump and criminal case files, has been a thorn in the side of this administration. Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. The Justice Department on July 7 released a memo saying no further disclosure of the documents was needed after teasing a "truckload" of Epstein files in March.

A legislative effort to release the Epstein files has been on pause as the House has not been in session since before the government shutdown started on Oct.1. Now, the House is poised to swear in a new Democratic lawmaker who is expected to provide the final signature in a petition to force a vote on a bill that would have the DOJ release all the files in the Epstein investigation.

While the email released today explicitly alleges Trump knew about Epstein's alleged sex trafficking for the first time, which Trump has denied, Trump has been mentioned in Epstein's criminal case files before.

Read the Epstein emails. What did they say?

"I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump," Epstein wrote in one email dated April 2, 2011. The email continues after the name of an alleged victim of Epstein is redacted: "spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned."

Another Epstein email on Jan. 31, 2019, said "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

Epstein's ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the "selectively leaked emails ... create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."

She also alleged the victim redacted is the late Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim who "repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever," according to Leavitt's statement.

Is Trump in the Epstein files?

Before the latest email revelation, Trump had already appeared in legal documents concerning Epstein's crimes, but not in a way that implicated him.

In the 1990s, Trump rode on aircraft owned by Epstein, according to flight logs released in two lawsuits. But that was 30-plus years ago.

In Palm Beach County state attorney documents, an image of a message pad communication seized in a Palm Beach police search appeared, but there is nothing more than Trump's name and a phone number.

Trump also used to party with Epstein, but said earlier this summer he threw him out of his club at Mar-a-Lago because he was poaching spa workers. The White House has said Epstein was thrown out for being "a creep."

When was Epstein caught and first charged?

A police investigation into Epstein began in March 2005 after a woman from the Palm Beach area in Florida said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by a wealthy man.

In July 2006, Epstein was indicted by a state grand jury on a felony charge of soliciting prostitution, which did not address the 14-year-old victim's age. He was arrested and spent one night in Palm Beach County jail, released the next day on $3,000 bond.

Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement that was called the "deal of the century." He pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, where he was allowed work leave privileges six days a week/12 hours a day over the 13 months he served.

When he was released from jail, he spent a year on house arrest but was allowed to travel anywhere so long as he returned in 24 hours.

What was Epstein convicted of?

Epstein never sat for trial, but he pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008 in Florida. He was also a registered sex offender.

He died in 2019 before he could be tried for sex trafficking charges in New York. He was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell, and the medical examiner ruled it a suicide.

Trump himself has cast doubt on Epstein's death.

Contributing: Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at KCrowley@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X (Twitter), Bluesky and TikTok.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Has Trump been mentioned before in the Epstein files? What to know after emails released

Reporting by Kinsey Crowley and Holly Baltz, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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