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Emails sent by accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein mentioning President Donald Trump are thrusting their relationship back into the spotlight as the trickle of documents going public soon could become a flood, and the president pressures GOP lawmakers to oppose a full release.
House Democrats released emails Nov. 12 from Epstein saying Trump "spent hours at my house" with one of Epstein's victims and allegedly "knew about the girls." Democrats said the emails raise questions about what Trump knew about Epstein.
"These two were very close, so the question is what did Trump know and when did he know it?" Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio, said on CNN.
The White House called the email release a "smear" and Trump said on social media that Democrats are trying to "deflect" from other issues.
Trump warned Republicans not to vote for a bill requiring the full release of the government's records on Epstein, saying “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”
Lawmakers seeking to force a vote on the full release of the Epstein records garnered the final signature they needed on Nov. 12 when the House swore in Arizona lawmaker, Democrat Adelita Grijalva. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will vote on the measure next week.
Jeffrey Epstein claimed he helped Russians gain insight into Trump
Shortly before President Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin at their 2018 summit in Helsinki, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein offered to help Putin better understand Trump – and claimed he’d been doing it for years.
"I think you might suggest to putin, that Lavrov, can get insight on talking to me," Epstein wrote in a typo-riddled June 24, 2018 email to Thorbjorn Jagland, who was Secretary General of the Council of Europe. “vitaly churkin used to . but he died. ? !”
Sergei Lavrov was at the time – and still is -- Russia's long-serving foreign minister and a close Putin confidant. Churkin was a top Russian diplomat and Moscow’s United Nations ambassador before dying under questionable circumstances in February 2017.
In the exchange, Epstein also told Jagland that Churkin “was great. he understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple."
“I’ll meet Lavrovs assistant on Monday and will suggest,” Jagland, the former prime minister of Norway, replied. “Thank you fo (sic) a lovely evening.”
The email exchange was one of many hundreds released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee. During some of Epstein’s talks with the Russians, Trump himself was under FBI investigation as part of its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election to help Trump get elected.
--Josh Meyer
Jeffrey Epstein said Donald Trump was ‘dangerous’ and didn’t have ‘one decent cell in his body’
Convicted sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein trashed his former friend Donald Trump in a 2017 email, saying he was “dangerous” and that he didn’t have “‘one decent cell in his body.”
In a Feb. 8, 2017 email exchange, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers told Epstein that, “It’s ok,” in reference to Trump, who had just been sworn in as President for his first term in office. “He didn’t wreck world and avoided scandal.”
Epstein, in a shorthand and typo-ridden response, said, “recall ive told you .. – I have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes-dangerous.”
--Josh Meyer
Grijalva signs Epstein discharge petition after being sworn into Congress
Immediately after being sworn in to her seat, Grijalva signed a discharge petition to force a vote on a House bill demanding the Justice Department fully release the Epstein files.
Grijalva’s swearing-in gave the House the necessary 218 votes to pass the Epstein discharge petition.
After delivering brief remarks, the new congresswoman signed the petition on the House floor.
“It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration,” Grijalva said. “That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files.”
Grijalva, whose swearing-in had been held up by Republican leadership for weeks, was elected in September to replace her father, Raul Grijalva, who died in March.
— Joey Garrison
'No deflections': Trump demands GOP stay out of Epstein docs fight
Trump urged Republicans in Congress to keep out of Democrats’ push to release all the Epstein documents after Wednesday’s release of three Epstein emails that mentioned the president’s name.
“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!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
In his post, Trump accused House Democrats of releasing the emails — one in which Epstein says Trump “knew about the girls” — because Democrats lost the fight over the government shutdown.
“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 said. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”
Four House Republicans have joined all House Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill demanding the Justice Department release all documents in the Epstein investigation. The four GOP lawmakers are Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
— Joey Garrison
White House: No Trump pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is not weighing a pardon for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring to abuse minors.
“It’s not something he’s talking about or even thinking about,” Leavitt said.
— Bart Jansen
House Oversight Dems say more Epstein docs are coming
House Democrats said they will be releasing more Jeffrey Epstein documents after the bombshell release of an email in which the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker alleged that President Donald Trump "spent hours at my house" with one of his victims.
"We want to know why Donald Trump spent the entire campaign saying he would release the files and now that he's in the White House, there's a massive cover-up going on," Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on MSNBC. "The survivors deserve the truth."
An initial tranche of Epstein emails, released earlier on Nov. 12, mentions Trump multiple times.
Committee Republicans later in the day released 20,000 or more documents that they said were from the same files from Epstein’s estate, but they didn’t highlight anything in particular.
"These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," Leavitt told reporters.
— Josh Meyer
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Epstein emails intensify records debate as Trump pressures GOP lawmakers. Live updates
Reporting by Zac Anderson, Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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