Donald Trump gave Republicans their marching orders on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal after bombshell emails revealed he may have known more about the sex offender’s conduct than he has acknowledged.
In his first public remarks since the emails were released on Wednesday, Trump doubled down on describing the Epstein files as a Democratic “hoax” and warned his party to focus on blaming Democrats for 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,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price.
“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!”
The president’s tirade came after documents released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee showed that Epstein mentioned Trump by name multiple times in private correspondence over the last 15 years.
In one email to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, dated April 2, 2011, the sex trafficker tells her that Trump had “spent hours” at his house with a victim.
The victim’s name was redacted in the files, but has been identified as Virginia Giuffre, who Maxwell recruited to be Epstein’s sex slave after meeting her as a teenager working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“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,” the email says.
In another message, written to author Michael Wolff on January 31, 2019, Epstein seems to address Trump’s earlier claim that he asked the sex offender to resign his membership at Mar-a-Lago Club after he and Maxwell kept poaching his staff.
But Epstein’s correspondence also contained the explosive revelation: “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
The latest revelations were unveiled as the House returns on Wednesday to officially end the government shutdown, which lasted a record 42 days.
The president did not receive or send any of the emails, nor has he been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or Maxwell.
But the issue is particularly tricky for Trump, not only because he was a known associate of Epstein for years, but also because he came to office promising his MAGA base that he would release all the files associated with his crimes.
Since then, however, he has lamented how much oxygen the issue has taken away from his second-term achievements, and at one stage even hit out at supporters for demanding answers.
“My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls--t,’ hook, line, and sinker,” he said in an extraordinary Truth Social rant in July.
Behind the scenes the administration has been scrambling to contain the firestorm.
On Wednesday, for instance, administration officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel met in the Situation Room with Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who is one of several Republicans wanting the Justice Department to release its trove of Epstein files.
“Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Asked why the administration simply won’t just release the files, Leavitt replied: “This administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration - ever.”
Others, however, remain unconvinced.
“House leadership and Trump have continually refused transparency by blocking the release of documents related to Epstein’s serial sexual abuse and criminal network,” said Elisa Batista, campaign director of UltraViolet Action.
“We can no longer be kept in the dark about who helped facilitate this globe-spanning, sex-trafficking network that preyed on teen girls.”
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for his crimes, while Maxwell was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in jail for her role in helping him recruit and abuse young girls.
But in a slap in the face for victims, the former British socialite was transferred to a low security prison camp by Trump’s Justice Department earlier this year after meeting with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche.
According to whistleblowers, Maxwell is now planning to seek a commutation from Trump to reduce her sentence.
Asked asked about this today, Leavitt said this “is not something that he’s even talking about or thinking about at this moment.”
About 30 minutes after his initial Truth Social post on the Epstein emails, Trump returned to social media to repeat his position.
“In other words,” he said, “the Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in particular, their most recent one — THE SHUTDOWN!”
