Epstein storm cloud looms over White House amid fresh calls for file release
A series of new document dumps and resurfaced emails has revived the Epstein controversy, turning it into one of the rare issues dividing Donald Trump from parts of his MAGA faithful.
Take a look back at any social media post by Donald Trump or the official White House account this year and you’ll inevitably find a barrage of comments calling for the release of the Epstein files.
When the President announced America had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear facilities in a daring stealth bombing raid, the response from many was: “Cool, release the Epstein files.”
When he announced a ceasefire had been reached in the bloody two-year war between Israel and Hamas, the reaction was: “Great, now you can release the Epstein files”.
The Epstein stormcloud has loomed over the White House since Mr Trump’s return to the Oval Office, and the storm is growing.
In the coming week, the United States House of Representatives will vote on a measure to compel the release of the files - a move not expected to make it past the Senate but one that sends a powerful bipartisan message demanding transparency around the crimes of the millionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful associates.
During his 2024 Presidential campaign, Mr Trump vowed that if elected, he would release the Epstein files - a trove of information rumoured to include a client list of powerful figures connected to the disgraced financier who died in prison in 2019.
In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review” for release.
But months later in July, the administration backflipped on its promise to divulge further information on Epstein, saying an investigation of 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence found no such client list, saying the sensitive nature of the information meant no further disclosures were warranted.
It came a month after former first-buddy Elon Musk poured fuel on the raging inferno of conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein, alleging the President had a personal reason for keeping them secret.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!,” Musk wrote on X.
A week later, Mr Musk deleted the post and conceded he regretted some of his comments made during the bitter public relationship breakdown, saying some “went too far”.
Last month, pressure continued to grow after King Charles stripped his brother of his royal titles, demoting him to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor over his scandalous relationship with Epstein and allegations of abuse against Ms Giuffre whose lawsuit he settled privately out of court.
The Epstein case is one of the few issues that have split the MAGA fan base from President Trump.
Many Republican politicians and voters have become disenchanted by the President’s broken election promise to release the files.
Mr Trump has become increasingly frustrated by the issue and dismissive of the mounting criticism, lashing it as the “Epstein hoax” fuelled by Democrats.
And with the release of thousands more documents from the disgraced financier’s estate this week, it’s an issue that isn’t going away anytime soon.
On Wednesday local time, House Democrats unilaterally released three never-before-seen emails between Epstein, his right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell who is serving a prison sentence for her role in the sex trafficking operation, and author Michael Wolff.
The headlines around the world soon screamed ‘Trump knew about the girls’ and ‘Trump spent time with Epstein victim’.
But the truth exposed in the emails was far less salacious.
In an email sent in 2011, Epstein wrote to Maxwell: “I want you to realise that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump … (victim) spent hours at my house with him …”.
But the victim, whose name was redacted by Democrats, was in fact the late Virginia Giuffre - who previously said Mr Trump was never involved in any wrongdoing and “couldn’t have been nicer”.
In her posthumous memoir, Ms Giuffre wrote about being “recruited” at 16 from Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club by “apex predator” Maxwell.
In another email sent to author Michael Wolff in 2019, and released by House Democrats this week, Epstein said Mr Trump told others he had asked him to resign from the club but claims he was “never a member ever … of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
That revelation also became less salacious when placed in the context of Mr Trump’s previous comments where he stated Epstein had “stolen” Ms Giuffre and other young women who worked at his resort spa in Florida.
“People were taken out of the spa, hired by him,” he said in July.
“And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not spa.’ I don’t want him taking people. And he was fine. And then not too long after that, he did it again and I said, ‘out of here’.”
The disclosure of the three cherry-picked emails prompted Republicans on the Oversight Committee to release a trove of documents from Epstein’s estate.
More than 23,000 pages obtained in August were made public hours after Democrats disclosed the three emails relating to Mr Trump.
The President has denied any knowledge or involvement in Epstein’s crimes and said the two had a falling out long before he became President.
That claim appeared to be supported by comments made by Epstein in the fresh release of documents by Republicans, including one message sent from the financier days after Mr Trump’s inauguration in 2017 in which he wrote: “Recall i’ve told you - I have met some very bad people .. none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes- dangerous.”
In another note, he described the now-President as a “maniac”.
The White House blasted the Democrats’ selective release of emails that came the same day the longest US government shutdown in history ended, describing it as “bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again”.
But the deflection hasn’t stopped the growing chorus of politicians and voters demanding the release of the Epstein files.
More Coverage
Originally published as Epstein storm cloud looms over White House amid fresh calls for file release