WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who as soon as mentioned admiringly that sex-trafficking youngster rapist Jeffrey Epstein preferred ladies “on the younger side,” may have new explanations for his ties along with his late buddy, now that his previous ones have been debunked as lies.
Ever since Epstein’s conviction on a Florida prostitution cost in 2008, Trump has been claiming that he knew nothing about his shut buddy’s relationships with underage ladies — claims that have been straight refuted in emails made public Wednesday from Epstein himself to his affiliate and fellow intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and journalist Michael Wolff.
“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that Trump did nothing wrong,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt instructed reporters Wednesday. “This is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party.”
Within the emails launched by Home Oversight Committee Democrats with victims’ names redacted, which the committee obtained by subpoenaing Epstein’s property, Epstein and Maxwell expressed concern in 2011 that Trump, who was then speaking about working for president in 2012, had not but talked about them.
“i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein wrote. “[VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there”
Maxwell answered again: “I’ve been thinking about that…”
In a 2019 e mail to Wolff, Epstein wrote: “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
Leavitt mentioned the sufferer within the e mail to Maxwell was Virginia Giuffre, who later mentioned Trump had not performed something untoward along with her. Giuffre was recruited by Maxwell at age 16 and died by suicide earlier this yr.
Neither Leavitt nor others in her workplace would reply whether or not Epstein’s particular, 14-year-old assertion ― that Trump had spent “hours” at Epstein’s residence with one of many victims ― was appropriate.
On Tuesday, Leavitt’s colleague Abigail Jackson blamed Democrats and HuffPost for not doing extra to assist Epstein’s victims. “Democrats and the media — including the Huffington Post — knew about Epstein and his victims for years and did nothing to help them while President Trump was calling for transparency, and is now delivering on it with thousands of pages of documents,” she mentioned.
The truth is, Trump’s White Home and Justice Division have labored aggressively to forestall any additional launch of details about Epstein, who was discovered lifeless in his jail cell following his second arrest in 2019, or Maxwell, who was transferred to a minimal safety “Club Fed” sort of jail following her assembly with prime DOJ official Todd Blanche. Blanche, previous to taking that job after Trump’s return to the White Home, labored as certainly one of Trump’s protection legal professionals in his varied legal circumstances.
White Home officers referred detailed questions on Maxwell’s switch to the Federal Jail Camp in Bryan, Texas, to the DOJ and its Bureau of Prisons.
The division has by no means, over a interval of months, responded to HuffPost queries on that matter. The Bureau of Prisons wouldn’t reply particular questions however did level to a bureau handbook — a handbook that implies Maxwell’s switch to Bryan violated the bureau’s personal guidelines due to the character of her crimes and the remaining size of her 20-year sentence following her conviction in 2021.
Minimal-security prisons like Bryan are designed for white-collar criminals who’re inside months of their launch dates and have applications to assist transition again into society, together with preparations for working unsupervised in the local people for hours at a time. Maxwell has a launch date 12 years away. Regardless of this, in accordance with a letter written to Trump by Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Home Judiciary Committee’s rating member, she has been afforded extraordinary therapy at Bryan, together with particular meals delivered to her and entry to a pet to play with.
Trump, previous to Epstein’s first arrest, had little however reward for him.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump instructed New York journal in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out pardoning Maxwell — he says he’s allowed to take action — whereas additionally offering false and deceptive explanations in regards to the occasions that led to his break with Epstein.
This summer season, Trump started claiming that he ended his friendship with Epstein after he realized that Epstein was hiring away workers from Trump’s Palm Seashore nation membership Mar-a-Lago to affix what turned out to be Epstein’s underage intercourse ring.
“He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” he instructed reporters throughout a golf trip to Scotland. “He did it again. And I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata.”
That hiring away of workers started no later than 2000, nonetheless, which was when Giuffre was recruited by Maxwell within the Mar-a-Lago car parking zone. It was a full seven years earlier than Trump lastly ended Epstein’s Mar-a-Lago membership.
When HuffPost requested him why it took seven years to interrupt with Epstein, Trump mentioned: “I don’t understand your question.”
