The messages are certain to inflame the debate on Capitol Hill over the #Trump admin’s handling of the #EpsteinFiles, & top ofcls’ decision to backtrack on a promise to fully release them. That issue, which has split #Republicans & alienated some of Trump’s right-wing supporters, had faded to the background as the govt #shutdown dragged on.

But the #House is set to return Wednesday to clear legislation to end the shutdown, & attention is likely to shift back to the #Epstein matter.

#law #rape

“These latest emails & correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding & the nature of the relationship between #Epstein & the president,” Rep Robert Garcia of California, the top #Democrat on the #Oversight Cmte, said in a statement.

The 3 separate email exchanges released on Wednesday were all from after Epstein’s 2008 plea deal in Florida on state charges of soliciting prostitution, in which federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue charges.

#Trump #law #rape

They came years after #Trump & #Epstein had a purported falling out in the early 2000s. One was addressed to Epstein’s longtime confidante #GhislaineMaxwell, while 2 were w/ the author Michael Wolff.

In one email from April 2011, Epstein told Maxwell, who was later convicted on charges related to facilitating his #crimes, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” He added that an unnamed victim “spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned.”

#law

“I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell wrote back.

In an email from January 2019, #Epstein wrote to Wolff of #Trump: “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” #House #Democrats, citing an unnamed whistle-blower, said this week that Maxwell was preparing to formally ask Trump to commute her federal prison sentence.

#criminal #law #rape #SexualAssault #felon47 #EpsteinFiles

The emails were provided to the #Oversight Cmte along with a larger tranche of documents from Epstein’s estate that the panel requested as part of its investigation into Epstein & Maxwell, who is serving a 20yr sentence for #SexTrafficking.

The cmte’s staff redacted victims’ names & any identifying information from the emails. Because the full set of documents has not been released, it was not clear whether the emails were excerpts from larger conversations with fuller context.

#Trump #law

…At the time #Epstein emailed Maxwell in 2011 calling #Trump the “dog that didn’t bark,” Trump was a reality television star & New York tabloid celebrity who was years away from becoming president.

…Epstein’s email from 2019, which claims #Trump “knew about the girls” & asked Maxwell “to stop,” was sent to Wolff, who had recently written a tell-all book about the president.

#criminal #law #rape #SexualAssault #felon47 #EpsteinFiles

#Epstein was months away from the arrest & federal charges that would send him to prison, but he was the focus of significant attention after The Miami Herald had published a series of articles drawing renewed attention to the secret agreement he had signed in 2008.

In his email, Epstein mentioned a victim of his #SexTrafficking operation. He also mentioned Mar-a-Lago, then disputed that #Trump had ever asked him to resign from the club. “Never a member ever,” Epstein wrote.

#law #rape

Wolff was also involved in a third email exchange, which began on Dec. 15, 2015, the night of a debate in the Republican presidential primary. Wolff emailed #Epstein & warned him that CNN was “planning to ask #Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards.”

Epstein wrote back, “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”

#criminal #law #rape #SexualAssault #felon47 #EpsteinFiles

Wolff advised inaction, suggesting that #Trump might try to deny a close association with #Epstein. “I think you should let him hang himself,” he wrote of Trump. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable P.R. & political currency” that could be used to “hang him” later or “save him, generating a debt.”

Trump never received a question about the matter in that debate, according to a transcript. It was unclear if he was asked about it separately.

#law