President Donald Trump is striking a defiant tone, even with members of his own party, after newly released emails showed convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein mentioning him numerous times.
In a 2011 email Epstein sent to Ghislaine Maxwell, he wrote, "i want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is trump.. VICTIM spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there."
The message was included in a trove of documents released this week by the House Oversight Committee.
Trump, who has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Epstein, dismissed the release as a political move by Democrats and warned Republicans not to fall for what he called a “trap.”
"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," President Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap."
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The email release comes as a discharge petition, which would force a House vote to compel the administration to release the so-called Epstein files, hit the 218-signature threshold on Wednesday, shortly after Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in. That starts the 7-day clock for Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule a vote.
It remains unclear whether investigators possess additional communications in the Epstein files linking Trump and Epstein. The emails released Tuesday include exchanges between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, who was preparing for a CNN appearance. Epstein reportedly believed the network planned to ask Wolff about Trump’s ties to him.
"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 valuable PR and political currency," Epstein wrote to Wolff.
Another email from 2019 shows Epstein disputing Trump’s claim that he was kicked out of Mar-a-Lago, saying, "trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in New York.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges related to her role in Epstein's sex trafficking operation. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. She expected to request a commutation of her sentence.
The White House said on Wednesday that it's not something he's thinking about at this time.
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