For years, President Donald Trump has sought to downplay his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted intercourse offender who for years moved in the identical social circles as Trump in Palm Beach and Manhattan.
Trump has alternately called Epstein a “terrific guy” — in 2002 — and later insisted he was “not a fan,” saying the 2 males had a falling out lengthy earlier than Epstein confronted his most critical authorized troubles.
But a new batch of emails from Epstein’s property, launched this week by the House Oversight Committee, provides recent detail to a relationship that has lengthy been scrutinized.
The newly launched messages don’t essentially rewrite the recognized historical past between Trump and Epstein, however they do introduce three notable new parts:
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Epstein’s declare that Trump “spent hours” with a trafficking and rape sufferer inside his house, who House Republicans on Wednesday identified because the late Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most outstanding victims. Giuffre died by suicide in April. She by no means implicated Trump in any wrongdoing in her e book or public feedback. Epstein was referring to Trump within the 2011 e mail with his longtime affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of intercourse trafficking after Epstein’s 2019 death.
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Epstein’s assertion that Trump “knew about the girls” – seemingly in reference to Trump’s declare that he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago membership for poaching younger girls who labored there
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And Epstein’s blunt personal assessments of Trump throughout his first time period as President.
“I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief, mad, ” Epstein wrote of Trump in March 2018. “he feels alone. and is nuts !!!”
NCS’s review of hundreds of pages of Epstein’s emails exhibits that Trump was one of the figures he returned to usually. Across exchanges with attorneys, journalists, enterprise contacts and acquainted acquaintances, Epstein repeatedly invoked Trump — typically to supply evaluation of his habits, typically to gossip, and typically merely to place himself as somebody with uncommon perception into the person who had turn into president.
The emails recommend that Trump remained a fixation for Epstein, as he’s incessantly talked about quite a few instances over a span of almost a decade — together with lengthy after their friendship ended.
In the 2011 e mail to Maxwell, Epstein described Trump because the “dog that hasn’t barked.” It’s unclear what he’s referring to.
In a December 2015 e mail, Epstein wrote to writer Michael Wolff about how Trump would possibly deal with questions on his previous relationship with Epstein. Trump on the time was working for President.
In February 2017, in an e mail to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Epstein wrote of Trump, “i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes – dangerous.”
The White House has forcefully rejected the suggestion that Trump knew about Epstein’s actions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails “prove absolutely nothing” and repeated their declare that Trump expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, some extent Epstein seemingly referenced within the newly launched emails.
“trump said he asked me to resign, never a member, ever,” Epstein wrote in January 2019.
The emails additionally seize Epstein’s unvarnished impressions of Trump throughout his first presidential time period, usually mixing gossip, evaluation, claims of insider perception, and blunt assessments.
“your world does not understand how dumb he really is,” he wrote of Trump in a 2017 e mail. “he will blame everyone around him.”
It was a exceptional flip for 2 former close mates.
The two moved in the identical Palm Beach and Manhattan circles within the Nineties and early 2000s — flying collectively on personal jets, attending events at Mar-a-Lago, showing at Victoria’s Secret runway exhibits; their friendship documented in flight logs, cellphone messages, pictures and video. In 1993, Epstein attended Trump’s marriage ceremony to Marla Maples, in accordance with pictures beforehand uncovered by NCS.
Epstein as soon as called Trump his “closest friend for 10 years,” a characterization echoed by a number of individuals of their orbit.
The relationship ultimately fractured.
Trump has since dismissed Epstein as a “creep” he expelled from his membership. By 2004, Trump and Epstein had a widely known falling out, reportedly tied to a dispute over a Palm Beach mansion each males needed to purchase at public sale. That dispute was long cited — although its precise particulars stay murky — as the rationale he distanced himself from Epstein years earlier than his arrest.
Trump’s personal account later shifted and he claimed he broke with Epstein as a result of Epstein “stole people that worked for me” at Mar-a-Lago, in feedback he made to reporters in July.
What’s clear is that by Trump’s presidency, his view of his former close friend had completely soured.
In messages from 2017 and 2018, he described Trump as “f***ing crazy,” speculated he could be exhibiting “early dementia,” referred to as him “a maniac,” in contrast him to a mob boss, replied “duh” when somebody referred to Trump as “truly stupid,” and added that he was “borderline insane.”
“he feels alone. and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief. mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically. its obvious he could crack. stormy daniels. ? lies after lies aflter lies,” he wrote in a single 2018 e mail.
In a 2019 trade, a contact wrote to Epstein, “just met your friend POTUS.”
“See if you still have your wallet,” Epstein responded
Other emails provided perception into his views of Trump’s mindset.
“donald is close to no one,” Epstein wrote in a single trade with an Emirati businessman in 2018. “he talks to many people. he tells each one something differnt.”
In one trade with former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, discussing Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer who had flipped on him, Epstein added, “i know how dirty Donald is.”
Whether the emails change something politically is unclear.
But subsequent week, the House is about to vote on whether or not to power the complete launch of further Epstein information — laws that will additionally require Senate approval and the president’s signature earlier than taking impact, which may carry much more of the lads’s previous into public view.