The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday, escalating partisan tensions in Washington over references to President Donald Trump in the late financier’s correspondence.
The massive document dump by Republicans came hours after Democrats on the committee published three emails from Epstein that appeared to suggest Trump “knew about the girls,” a reference to the women and minors exploited in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
Democrats said the emails “raise serious questions” about the president’s knowledge of Epstein’s conduct. Republicans accused their counterparts of selectively releasing the material to smear Trump ahead of renewed budget negotiations.
Democrats Release Emails Referencing Trump
The three emails, exchanged between Epstein, his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and author Michael Wolff between 2011 and 2019, contain several references to Trump.
In one 2019 email, Epstein wrote to Wolff that “of course [Trump] knew about the girls as he asked [Maxwell] to stop.” In another, from 2011, Epstein told Maxwell that Trump was “the dog that hasn’t barked” and had “spent hours at my house” with one of the victims, whose name was later unredacted as Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, previously said in a sworn deposition that she never saw Trump engage in any wrongdoing and never saw him at Epstein’s home, despite having worked briefly at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
A third email, from 2015, showed Wolff advising Epstein on Trump’s early presidential campaign, writing, “You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
Republicans Accuse Democrats of Cherry-Picking
Within hours, the Republican-led Oversight Committee released the full 20,000-page trove from the Epstein estate, including spreadsheets, photographs, and extensive correspondence.
“Democrats whine about ‘releasing the files,’ but they only cherry-pick when they have them to generate clickbait,” committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) posted on X. “You deserve the full truth.”
A committee spokesperson accused Democrats of withholding records that reference Democratic officials, calling the selective release “a politically motivated stunt.”
“The Epstein Estate has produced over 20,000 pages of documents, yet Democrats are once again intentionally withholding records that name Democrat officials,” the spokesperson said.
White House and President Trump Respond
The White House dismissed the Democrats’ release as a “bad-faith effort to distract” from the government reopening and ongoing fiscal negotiations.
“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “These emails are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments.”
President Trump himself addressed the issue Wednesday morning on Truth Social, writing that Democrats were reviving what he called “the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”
“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,” Trump wrote. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”
He added that Democrats’ “antics of viciously closing our Country” had cost “$1.5 trillion” and warned GOP lawmakers not to be “distracted by Epstein or anything else.”
Legislative Fallout
The release coincides with a push in Congress to compel the Trump administration to release all federal records connected to Epstein. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) was sworn in Wednesday afternoon, providing the 218th signature needed on a discharge petition to force a vote on the measure.
All House Democrats and four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), and Nancy Mace (S.C.) — have signed the petition. White House officials have reportedly reached out to Boebert and Mace, urging them to reconsider their support.
Epstein Case and Ongoing Oversight
Epstein died in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, in what officials ruled a suicide. The ruling remains widely disputed due to Epstein’s powerful social connections.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Recently surfaced whistleblower documents suggest she sought a commutation from President Trump and is receiving preferential treatment in prison — claims now under congressional review.
Among the newly released estate materials is a 2003 birthday letter to Epstein, allegedly from Trump, printed on the outline of a woman’s body. Trump has denied authoring it and has sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on its existence.
Looking Ahead
The Oversight Committee’s investigation into Epstein’s network — and whether government agencies failed to act — continues. Both parties say they support full transparency for Epstein’s victims, though Wednesday’s dueling disclosures underscored deep divisions over how the case intersects with the sitting president.
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