Email exchanges between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, who wrote four books chronicling Trump’s presidency, were also released by the committee on Wednesday.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you–either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015, six months after Trump president officially announced his 2016 presidential campaign.
“If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Epstein replied.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff replied the following day. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. 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. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.”
A third message, which was exchanged between Epstein and Wolff during Trump’s first presidential term in January 2019, addresses claims that Trump had Epstein banned from membership at Mar-a-Lago years prior.
“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein claimed, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
In August, convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant, reportedly told the Justice Department that President Donald Trump was “never inappropriate with anybody” during his friendship with Epstein.
“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during their meeting one month prior, according to audio and transcripts obtained by the New York Post.
The Department of Justice previously handed over an annotated version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts showing that “much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony — with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses — was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” according to the filing via ABC News.
The Justice Department asked two New York federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases against Maxwell and Epstein, however, is not asking them to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general is seeking additional time to consider “its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits.”
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year-sentence, was moved from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan after speaking with the Department of Justice about Epstein. Federal Prison Camp Bryan typically houses nonviolent offenders and is less restrictive than the Tallahassee federal prison.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons hadn’t publicly given a reason for Maxwell’s relocation, however, the move was made after she met with Blanche in an effort to get immunity by providing details about Epstein.
In September, an alleged doodle and note made by Trump to Epstein in 2003 was released by House Democrats, Axios reported. The note, which was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal in July and Trump publicly denied existed, includes a drawing of a woman’s body and was allegedly written in a book compiled by longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The book was turned over to the House Oversight Committee along with a larger tranche of documents on Monday, Rep. Robert Garcia, the panel’s top Democrat, confirmed in a statement obtained by Axios.
“It’s time for the President to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files. The American people are demanding answers,” Garcia said, adding that Democrats are now “carefully reviewing the contents of the book and additional documents to determine the full extent of the implications,” and “expect to release our findings to the public.”
Trump threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal for its report, which he called “defamatory” and “a fake thing” in a post shared on his Truth Social account.
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