Saturday Night Live (SNL) referenced the newly released files relating to the deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this weekend, homing in an email from Epstein’s brother which asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had “the photos” of U.S. President Donald Trump “blowing Bubba.”
Why It Matters
Congressional lawmakers released thousands of pages of emails relating to the former financier earlier this week which referenced a litany of high-profile individuals, including Trump.
Trump, a longtime friend of Epstein, has said the two fell out long before the financier was first convicted of a sex-related crime. He has denied wrongdoing related to Epstein.
Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019. A Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) memo published in July this year reiterated Epstein had died by suicide at the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center.
What To Know
Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, said during SNL’s cold open he would sell the Epstein files for $800 apiece, holding up a framed, “one-of-a-kind, printed-out screenshot, in very low-res” of what appears to be one of the email exchanges released on Wednesday.
“It makes a great stocking stuffer,” the fictionalized Trump then said. “I just ordered the one that says, ‘Does Putin have the photo of Trump blowing Bubba?’ We love that one. Whatever the hell that means.”
One of the emails released by the House this week showed a message dated March 2018, in which real estate investor Mark Epstein told his brother, Jeffrey, to ask Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, whether Putin has “the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”
“Bubba” is a nickname sometimes attributed to former President Bill Clinton. Mark Epstein told Newsweek the individual referenced in the exchange was not Clinton, but did not offer any information about the identity of “Bubba” or the meaning behind the message to his brother.
Since returning to the Oval Office at the start of the year, Trump has thawed glacial relations between the White House and the Kremlin, personally meeting Putin in Alaska. Trump seemed for months reluctant to force the Russia leader into negotiating on a peace deal for Ukraine after the Republican promised a swift end to the conflict blazing in Eastern Europe, but last month slapped sanctions on Moscow and has vocally criticized lethal Russian aerial blitzes on its neighbor.
The Guardian reported in 2021 that leaked documents, seen by the newspaper and dated January 2016, appeared to confirm the Kremlin possessed kompromat—a Russian term referring to damaging or compromising material—relating to Trump’s “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory” prior to his election as president. Reports from early 2017 suggested Moscow intelligence held some form of compromising material about the president, which both parties strongly denied.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday the emails relating to Epstein “prove absolutely nothing other than President Trump did nothing wrong.”
The DOJ said on Friday it would comply with a request from Trump to investigate Epstein’s alleged ties to Clinton and investment bank JPMorgan.
The joint FBI and DOJ memo from July had said officials did “not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
What People Are Saying
James Austin Johnson, playing President Donald Trump on SNL on Saturday, said during the show’s cold open: “Jeffrey Epstein, I barely knew the guy, as evidenced by the thousands of pictures of us together dancing and grinding our teeth at various parties, always leering and pointing at something just off camera, probably a book we’re excited to read.”
What Happens Next
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on a new bill that would compel the DOJ to release all unclassified material relating to Epstein next week.
