Washington DC: The controversy surrounding former US President Donald Trump’s past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein resurfaced on Wednesday after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a set of previously unseen emails written by the late financier.
According to the documents, Epstein allegedly claimed that Trump had “spent hours” at his home with a victim of sex trafficking and “knew about the girls.” The revelation, reported by the Associated Press, adds to longstanding questions about Trump’s association with Epstein — a convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Emails Detail Alleged Interactions
In one 2011 email addressed to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate now serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding Epstein’s trafficking operations, he wrote:
“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”
He added that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a person identified by House Democrats as a victim, noting that “He has never once been mentioned.”
In another message sent to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein allegedly wrote,
“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
White House Dismisses ‘Fake Narrative’
The White House swiftly hit back at the claims, accusing Democrats of misrepresentation.
“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” said Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in an official statement.
Trump has consistently denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes, saying he severed all ties with him years before the financier’s 2019 arrest.
Maxwell’s Conviction and Ongoing Debate
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 for recruiting and grooming young girls for Epstein. She is currently serving her sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Texas, having been transferred from a Florida facility earlier this year. Her legal team maintains she was “unfairly prosecuted for Epstein’s crimes.”
The release of these emails — and the renewed scrutiny of Trump’s alleged association — have reignited political and public debate, with Democrats calling for further transparency and Trump allies decrying what they describe as “political theater ahead of the 2026 election season.”