White House downplays new Epstein emails that mention Trump

Updated November 12, 2025 at 11:02 AM ET

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released three new emails from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that mention President Trump, raising new questions about the extent of their relationship.

In one 2015 email between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, the pair discuss a potential question from Trump's upcoming CNN interview about Trump and Epstein's personal ties.

"I think you should let him hang himself," Wolff wrote. "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."

The correspondence shared Wednesday is part of 23,000 additional documents the committee is reviewing from the Epstein estate, Oversight Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said in a statement.

"The more Donald Trump tries to cover-up the Epstein files, the more we uncover," Garcia wrote. "These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President."

Another email Epstein sent in 2011 to Ghislaine Maxwell, his associate who was also convicted on trafficking charges, called Trump the "dog that hasn't barked" and says Trump spent "hours at my house" with one of the alleged sex trafficking victims.

The last email shared is a 2019 message between Epstein and Wolff in which the disgraced financier wrote that "of course [Trump] knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop." The email does not elaborate any further.

NPR has not independently confirmed the veracity of the correspondence.

In September, House Democrats released more than 200 pages of a birthday book for Epstein created more than two decades ago that includes a lewd drawing and letter that appears to be signed by Trump.

The president has consistently denied any meaningful connection to Epstein, the veracity of the birthday book and paid little heed to his own supporters who have called for a full release of files kept on Epstein and his alleged crimes, before and after he died by suicide in 2019 while in federal custody.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sent a statement to NPR that said in part "the Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."

"These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump's historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again," Leavitt wrote.

In July, he told reporters that he and Epstein fell out because Epstein hired away young female employees who worked at the spa at Mar-a-Lago.

The release timed with House votes

The latest Epstein files revelation comes as the House returns to session for votes that could reopen the federal government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

House Democrats and four Republicans have been pushing for a vote to release additional files related to the Epstein case since before the government shutdown began in October.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson was able to delay the vote by keeping the chamber out for seven weeks, and most recently by refusing to swear in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona. Grijalva is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon.

Critics on both sides of the aisle viewed Johnson's refusal as a means of avoiding the vote to direct the Department of Justice to release the Epstein documents.

On the campaign trail, Grijalva, who won a special election Sept. 23, promised to sign onto the bipartisan petition spearheaded by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to force a House vote on the Epstein matter. Grijalva's signature marked the 218th one needed to force a vote on the matter.

The Epstein files continue to be a political thorn in the president's side, after Trump campaigned on releasing the documents as part of a broader message painting his candidacy as a way to expose powerful people hiding the truth.
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