Donald Trump says he supports the release of more Jeffrey Epstein files
Donald Trump wants more files related to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be released and has slammed the controversy over his former friend’s criminality as a “Democrat hoax.”
US President Donald Trump has said he backed lawmakers’ efforts to release more files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite his previous opposition to the measure.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The 79-year-old Republican has accused Democrats of pushing an “Epstein hoax” after emails emerged in which the disgraced financier suggested Mr Trump “knew about the girls”.
Some critics have accused Mr Trump of trying to conceal details about his own alleged wrongdoing – something the president denies – by looking to block the vote, which has divided his typically loyal Republican party.
The issue has driven Mr Trump away from some of his closest allies within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose 2026 re-election bid Trump withdrew an endorsement for over the weekend.
“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” Mr Trump said in his post, in reference to some Republican lawmakers breaking from his previous stance.
The US President has demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI investigate links between Epstein and ex-president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, along with former Harvard president Larry Summers, who served as Clinton’s treasury secretary.
Before he died in prison in 2019, Epstein had been required to register as a sex offender in Florida after pleading guilty in 2008 to two counts of solicitation of prostitution, including from a minor.
BOMBSHELL EMAIL SHEDS LIGHT ON ANDREW ‘MASSAGE’ CLAIM
A bombshell email to convicted sex trafficker billionaire Jeffrey Epstein sheds a damning new light on sex claims made against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The message from Epstein’s socialite madam and girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, appears to suggest the disgraced royal received a ‘massage’ at her Belgravia home in London, according to The Sun.
In the January 2015 email – sent just days after Andrew was named in US court documents – she writes: “I have to distance myself from you in a statement too.
“And they need me to say I was not aware of massage w/andrew in my house.”
Epstein replied: “I am on the phone with another attny (sic) getting you an answer.”
Virginia Giuffre said Andrew had sex with her at Ghislaine’s London house in 2001 – which he has always denied and has never been charged with.
Sources who are scrutinising more than 20,000 pages of emails and other material released in the US this week pointed to the wording as highly significant.
One said: “You have to look very carefully at what she says. She doesn’t deny the massage took place.
“She says she has been told to say that she was not aware that it took place.
“This is going to heap further pressure on Andrew and increase the pressure on him to answer questions.”
Giuffre – who committed suicide earlier this year at her home in Australia – claimed ‘massage’ was a code word for sex.
In court documents she claimed Epstein trafficked her aged 17 to have sex with Andrew at Maxwell’s flat in London, at Epstein’s New York mansion and his private island, Little St James, in the US Virgin Islands.
Andrew, who settled with Giuffre for a reported £12 million, has always strenuously denied the claims.
In his disastrous BBC interview he claimed a 2001 snap of him with his arm around tragic Ms Giuffre, then 17, at Maxwell’s London flat might have been doctored.
He said he had “no recollection” of the meeting.
But the email from Maxwell – currently serving time in a US jail for sex trafficking – is the first piece of evidence appearing to tie him to the Belgravia property, where the photo was allegedly taken.
Other emails also appear to confirm that the picture of Andrew and Ms Giuffre is genuine.
In one email in 2011, Epstein – found dead in jail in 2019 – wrote: “Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew, as many of my employees have.”
EPSTEIN COACHED TRUMP FOE; ANDREW ‘GREAT FUN’
Jeffrey Epstein was feeding questions to one of US President Donald Trump’s political opponents during a government hearing, freshly released documents show.
The messages, first reported by the Washington Post, show the convicted pedophile texted US Representative Stacey Plaskett during a February 27, 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing about Mr Trump’s alleged payments to mistresses to gag them prior to his 2016 election tilt.
President Trump has vehemently denied all allegations.
Epstein appeared to be watching the hearing live on television as he texted Ms Plaskett about
testimony given by Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
“Hes opened the door to questions re who are the other henchmen at trump org,” Epstein texted Ms Plaskett at 12.25pm.
“Yup. Very aware and waiting my turn,” Ms Plaskett wrote back.
At 2.34pm, Epstein told Ms Plaskett “Good work” – a minute after Ms Plaskett finished her questioning.
The texts were released as part of roughly 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate made public earlier this week.
The documents redacted Ms Plaskett’s name, but the newspaper analysed the messages and compared them to hearing footage to report Ms Plaskett was indeed texting Epstein.
At the time, Epstein was already convicted on state prostitution charges, and months later he’d be charged with sex trafficking minors.
Ms Plaskett’s office provided a statement on the matter to the Washington Post.
“During the hearing, Congresswoman Plaskett received texts from staff, constituents and the public at large offering advice, support and in some cases partisan vitriol, including from Epstein,” the statement read.
“As a former prosecutor she welcomes information that helps her get at the truth and took on the GOP (Republican Party) that was trying to bury the truth.
“The congresswoman has previously made clear her long record combating sexual assault and human trafficking, her disgust over Epstein’s deviant behaviour and her support for his victims.”
The most recent trove of documents also show Epstein gushed to a former adviser to Microsoft founder Bill Gates that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was “great fun” and urged him to meet the now former prince in Davos, Switzerland.
The January 2010 messages were between Epstein and Boris Nikolic, who was later named as a back-up executor in Epstein’s will.
The pair corresponded six months after Epstein left a Florida jail on charges he procured a minor for prostitution.
The then-British royal was in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum while serving as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment.
Epstein opened the chain by asking Nikolic if he’d had “any fun” at Davos so far.
Nikolic told him he’d met “your friend Bill Clinton,” then Nicolas Sarkozy and would later see “your other friend Prince Andrew as he has some questions re Microsoft.”
“You can tell Andrew we are friends,” Epstein replied.
When Nikolic said he didn’t need anything from the then prince, Epstein pushed back.
“Yes you do. You need to laugh and have fun. He is good at that … He’s great fun.”
Some time over the next week, the US House of Representatives will vote on a bill which could force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files in their entirety.
Nikolic and Andrew could not be reached for comment.
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Originally published as Donald Trump says he supports the release of more Jeffrey Epstein files