Jeffrey Epstein said that Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” with a woman later identified as a victim of sex trafficking, according to emails that raise fresh questions about the US president’s relationship with the disgraced financier.
Democrats on the US House of Representatives oversight committee on Wednesday published three email exchanges containing allegations that Mr Trump was more aware of Epstein’s illicit activities than the president has said.
In one 2011 email addressed to Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, the late sex offender wrote that Mr Trump was the “dog that hasn’t barked” and had “spent hours at my house” with a victim whose name was redacted.
Democrats on the committee also published two email exchanges between Epstein and the author Michael Wolff. In one 2019 email, Epstein said of Mr Trump: “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
READ MORE
[ Analysis: Trump says Epstein is a 'dead issue' - but the political threat remainsOpens in new window ]
[ Timeline: How Epstein row plunged Maga world into turmoilOpens in new window ]
The emails were part of a tranche of more than 20,000 documents turned over to US Congress by Epstein’s estate in response to a subpoena from lawmakers.
House Republicans accused their Democratic counterparts of “cherry picking” and later on Wednesday published the entire tranche of new material.
The document dump included a 2015 email between Epstein and a New York Times reporter, in which the late financier asked the reporter if he would “like photso [sic] of Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen”.
In another 2019 email, sent from Epstein to himself, the sex offender referenced Mr Trump and said he “came to my house many times” during an unspecified time period, adding: “The testimony of the houseman John allessi confiremed [sic] it. He never got a massage.”
The fresh disclosures threaten to reignite a bipartisan furore over the president’s links to Epstein.
Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the committee, said: “These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president.”
Mr Trump has said he was friends with Epstein for 15 years, but said the two had a falling out more than two decades ago. He has vehemently denied any involvement in the disgraced financier’s crimes.
The White House and House Republicans were quick to dismiss the emails on Wednesday, saying the unnamed victim in the 2011 email was Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, who died by suicide earlier this year.
Ms Giuffre described meeting the president once in her posthumous memoir, but did not accuse him of wrongdoing.
House Republicans said Democrats had redacted Ms Giuffre’s name from the published emails because they were “trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump”.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Democrats had “selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear president Trump”.
“The fact remains that president Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,” Ms Leavitt added.
The newly unearthed material will nevertheless pile pressure on Mr Trump as he seeks to quell the furore over his administration’s handling of the so-called “Epstein files”.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote in the coming weeks on compelling the administration to release the federal government’s files on the Epstein case.
In September, the Democrats on the House oversight committee published a lewd birthday message that Mr Trump allegedly sent to Epstein more than 20 years ago.
The White House swiftly denied the letter came from Mr Trump, saying the signature did not match that of the president.
Ms Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges, told US deputy attorney-general Todd Blanche in July that she had “never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way”.
However, in the emails released on Wednesday, Ms Maxwell responded to Epstein’s remark about Mr Trump having spent hours with a victim by saying: “I have been thinking about that.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
