\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump<\/strong> has long sought to downplay his relationship with the late child-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The president has claimed he was \u201cnot a fan\u201d<\/a> of the financier and that, in fact, he doesn\u2019t get the \u201cfascination\u201d<\/a> with this \u201cboring\u201d case\u2014which has included disturbing allegations against some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.<\/p>\n But newly released Epstein emails have once again undermined Trump\u2019s efforts to distance himself from his old friend, who died in prison in 2019. In messages unveiled<\/a> by House Democrats on Wednesday, Epstein directly claims that Trump \u201cknew about the girls,\u201d and that the now-president \u201cspent hours at my house\u201d with one of Epstein\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n Trump is a \u201cdog that hasn\u2019t barked,\u201d Epstein wrote in 2011 to co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell,<\/strong> according to a reproduction of the email released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n In another email exchange, the journalist Michael Wolff<\/strong> informs Epstein that Trump may be asked about their relationship during a 2015 Republican primary debate on CNN. Epstein asks, \u201cif we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?\u201d Wolff responds: \u201cI think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn\u2019t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You could 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after Oversight Democrats released the three exchanges Wednesday, the committee\u2019s Republican majority accused<\/a> them of \u201ccherry-pick[ing]\u201d\u2014then released more than 20,000 other Epstein documents. Trump is mentioned several times in the tranche. Some of those mentions are innocuous, as the New York Times<\/em>\u2019 David Enrich<\/strong> noted<\/a>; in one, Epstein describes Trump as \u201cborderline insane.\u201d<\/p>\n The emails are the latest flash point in the Trump-Epstein saga<\/a>, which was thrust back into the political conversation this summer, when the Justice Department, led by Trump loyalist Pam Bondi,<\/strong> announced<\/a> that it had no evidence Epstein was murdered, and no evidence implicating others in Epstein\u2019s crimes. The attorney general\u2019s statements came months after she said, shortly after being sworn in, that she had Epstein\u2019s client list sitting on her desk, waiting to be released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n