“trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein wrote.
The redacted email also made reference to Mar-a-Lago – Trump’s private club in Florida – and an Epstein victim.
Robert Garcia, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, during a hearing on September 18, 2025.Credit: Bloomberg
The new documents are certain to prompt renewed interest in the fallout from the Epstein saga, which raged in Washington earlier this year as Democrats – and a slew of Republicans – demanded the Trump administration release more files from the FBI investigation into Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring.
Epstein was never convicted on those charges, but his long-time associate and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.
Responding to the release of the emails, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said they were selectively chosen “to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
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“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees,” Leavitt said.
“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.”
It was not clear whether the emails selectively released by the Democrats were part of longer email chains, and the lack of context makes it harder to ascertain their significance. But the Democrats said the documents struck a blow against “the White House’s Epstein cover-up”.
“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. 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,” said Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee.
“The Department of Justice must fully release the Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue pushing for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims.”
Protesters against President Donald Trump in the US frequently draw on his past friendship with Epstein.Credit: AP
Members of the House of Representatives were returning to Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) after a long hiatus to vote on a bill that will reopen the US federal government.
Hours after the Democrats released the new Epstein emails, Republicans on the same committee released a trove of some 20,000 pages of emails, photographs and other documents received from the Epstein estate.
Among others, they included email exchanges between Epstein and new age author Deepak Chopra, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, investor and former Bill Gates adviser Boris Nikolic and former New York Times journalist Landon Thomas Jr, who left the paper in 2019 after reportedly seeking a charitable donation from Epstein, who was a source and friend.
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Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have selectively released several documents from thousands collected from the Epstein estate.
That included pages from the so-called “birthday book” made for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. One of those pages was a written note, purportedly signed by Trump, that appeared inside the outline of a woman’s body.
Trump has denied writing the note or drawing the picture. He is also suing News Corp’s The Wall Street Journal, which first revealed the note, over its reporting on the matter.
