Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein partying at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 (NBC News).
House Democrats and the New York Times, at just about the same time on Wednesday, unveiled emails from the estate of infamous sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, including one from 2011 that claimed a victim once "spent hours at my house" with Donald Trump.
The president, whose defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over reporting on a 2003 "bawdy" 50th birthday letter for Epstein remains pending, was described in the email exchange between Epstein and his convicted sex-trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as the "dog that hasn't barked."
"I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump," Epstein told Maxwell in April 2011, according to estate records handed to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. "[Redacted victim name] spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there."
Maxwell replied hours later saying, "I have been thinking about that…"
The latest developments dropped amid claims that Maxwell has been receiving special treatment behind bars and as questions swirl about whether Congress will vote to release the "Epstein files" that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi controversially declined to make public.
Notably, the email exchange took place eight years after the "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret" Epstein birthday book submission that Trump claims he did not author, draw, or sign.
When Trump first sued, he said the letter described in the Wall Street Journal's reporting did not exist. Epstein's estate, pursuant to subpoena, subsequently released the birthday book to Congress, which in turn published the contents.
When Trump's former criminal defense attorney turned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed the incarcerated Maxwell in July, she said she "never" saw "gentleman" Trump act inappropriately with anyone. At the same time, Maxwell said it was "true" that she put together the Epstein 50th "birthday book" and claimed she did not remember a Trump letter.
"While we're on this topic, just — and again, I know we're jumping around and we've been going on it for a while, so I apologize," Blanche said, "But there's recently been reports about a birthday book that you assembled for Mr. Epstein, I think, for his 50th birthday in 2003."
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox
"That's true," Maxwell replied.
"What do you know about that?" Blanche asked.
Maxwell explained that she got the idea from her mother, who put together a birthday book for Ghislaine's father Robert Maxwell's 60th birthday.
"And when I — Epstein would talk about his 50th, he said, I don't know what I'm going to do. And I said, well, these are nice things, my mom did this book for my dad. He said, I love that idea. He said, can you help coordinate it? And he organized who — he called a lot of the people himself," Maxwell said. "I coordinated the putting together of the book. And some — in some instances, I called people that asked them to contribute."
Maxwell further said that the "ask" of birthday book letter-writers was "say anything you want on a piece of paper.
As Blanche continued probing about whether Maxwell specifically remembered Trump "submitting a letter or a card or a note," Maxwell said "I don't" and that she didn't have any recollection of a "picture of a naked woman or something like that," as Blanche put it in his question.
At another point during the interview, Blanche asked about the "birthday book" again and Maxwell again said she didn't remember asking Trump to submit a letter but suggested it was possible Epstein himself asked Trump to do so.
"I did ask some people. I don't remember Mr. Trump. I don't remember who I did ask, but Epstein also asked people himself directly," Maxwell said. "So it could have happened that way, if it happened at all."
In an another newly released email from 2015, author Michael Wolff, who is currently suing First Lady Melania Trump, apparently tipped off Epstein to rumblings that CNN was going to ask then-candidate Trump about his Epstein ties.
A 2015 email exchange between Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Epstein (House Oversight Democrats).
"[I]f we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?" Epstein replied.
"I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency," Wolff answered with advice. "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," Wolff continued.
According to an additional 2019 email Congress released, Epstein told Wolff of Trump that "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."
A 2019 email exchange between Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Epstein (House Oversight Democrats).
Also referencing an unidentified victim's name, Epstein noted "trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever" regarding Mar-a-Lago.
In July, Trump said he booted Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because "[p]eople," young women, "were taken out of the spa — hired by him — in other words, gone."
"And other people would come and complain, 'This guy is taking people from the spa,'" the president said. "I didn't know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa, I don't want them taking people.' And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, 'Out of here.'"
"He stole people that worked for me. I said, 'don't ever do that again.' He did it again. And I threw him out of the place persona non-grata," Trump added.
In a 2002 interview, Trump called Epstein a "terrific guy" he had known for 15 years, while noting Epstein's interest in "beautiful women" on the "younger side."
"He's a lot of fun to be with," Trump told New York magazine. "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
By 2019, and in the course of defending his then-Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta — the former U.S. attorney who signed off on a sweetheart plea deal and greenlit a non-prosecution agreement immunizing Epstein's potential co-conspirators — Trump had changed his tune, saying he "knew [Epstein] like everybody in Palm Beach knew him."
"I had a falling out with him a long time ago," Trump said. "I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan."
Follow Law&Crime:
