Democrats in the House Oversight Committee released on Wednesday a new batch of emails from Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased sex criminal who was notoriously in contact with all sorts of powerful people. By now it is well known that Donald Trump was connected to Epstein in many ways, but these new emails indicate more explicitly that Trump had some awareness of Epstein's sex trafficking.
The correspondences are dated between 2011 and 2019, the year of Epstein's death in jail, and his correspondents spanned industries and nominal political affiliations. They included Kathryn Ruemmler, former White House Counsel to President Barack Obama; Larry Summers, economist and former Harvard president; Michael Wolff, columnist and journalist; Peggy Siegal, entertainment publicist; and Ghislaine Maxwell, close associate and fellow sex offender. Epstein sent his emails from accounts that riffed on his initials, like "jeeitunes@gmail.com" or "jeevacation@gmail.com," and he punctuated them like E. E. Cummings. In the messages, Epstein talked about business and life, spoke dismissively about Trump's capacities and legal affairs, offered PR and journalism advice, and made one remark that can be read as an open reference to his own pedophilia.
The most newsworthy portions of this particular email dump are those pertaining to the relationship between Epstein and Trump. This relationship ought to be undeniable by now, due to flight logs that show Trump as a frequent passenger on Epstein's planes, abundant photographs of the two partying together over the course of two decades, and even a lewd cartoon drawn by Trump for Epstein's 50th birthday. Previously, Epstein was recorded saying that he was Trump's "closest friend." But Trump has continued to deny any meaningful link between him and Epstein, and has pushed to sue the Wall Street Journal for reporting on the birthday note. Three emails, newly disclosed to the public, show Epstein referring to Trump by name.
On April 2, 2011, Epstein wrote a note to Maxwell, referencing a victim of sex trafficking:
i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there
Epstein wrote to Wolff on Jan. 31, 2019, suggesting that Trump was aware of his sex trafficking:
[Victim] mara lago. [redacted]. Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. . of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop
Wolff and Epstein also had an exchange in December 2015, suggesting that Epstein had some kind of leverage over Trump, grounded in their personal relationship:
From: Michael Wolff
To: Jeffrey Epstein
I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards.
From: Jeffrey Epstein
To: Michael Wolff
if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?
From: Michael Wolff
To: Jeffrey Epstein
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. 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.
The most chilling email of the bunch might be from a correspondence with Ruemmler, formerly a lawyer for the Obama White House. Epstein makes a quip that suggests that he is a pedophile, and implies that Ruemmler would find this disclosure unremarkable:
In a different exchange, dated Feb. 10, 2017, Ruemmler wrote to Epstein, "Trump is so gross," followed by a redacted section. He replied: "worse in real life and upclose."
There is plenty of evil in here, but the mundane bits are illuminating in their own way, revealing the everyday concerns of people in positions of great influence. Even when exchanging emails with one of the country's highest-profile sex traffickers, a powerful person like Larry Summers might take a quick moment to use the case of Michelle Jones to decry cancel culture, then append it with an all-caps disclaimer: "DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT."
Might be too late for that, Larry.
