New emails allege Trump ‘knew about the girls’

New York: Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein told close friend Ghislaine Maxwell that he “spent hours at my house” with one of Donald Trump’s victims and told a reporter that Trump “knew about girls,” according to new documents released by Democrats in the US Congress.

The US president, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s but said the pair broke up in the 2000s, has always firmly denied knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell’s sex trafficking operations.

The three emails released on Wednesday morning US time were selected by Democrats from a tranche provided to the House Oversight Committee by Epstein’s estate as part of a subpoena. All three came after Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution as part of a plea deal.

In his first email, dated April 2011, Epstein tells Maxwell: “I want you to understand that the dog that doesn’t bark is trump. [REDACTED] I spent hours with him in my house, and he was never mentioned. police chief. etc. “I’m 75% there.”

The second email, dated December 2015, includes author and journalist Michael Wolff informing Epstein that CNN might plan to ask him about his ties to Trump during a television interview. Trump was seeking the Republican presidential nomination at the time.

“If we could formulate an answer for him,” replies Epstein, “what do you think it would be?”

Wolff then suggests that Epstein “should have given himself permission” [Trump] hang himself”. “If he says he didn’t get on the plane or home, that makes you valuable public relations and political money,” says Wolff. “You can potentially hang him for a positive benefit for you, or if he looks like he could actually win, you can bail him out and create a loan.”

The third email, from 2019 (months before Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges), also contains correspondence from Epstein to Wolff.