The Trump administration is scrambling to cope after the House Oversight Committee released tens of thousands of messages from Epstein’s estate.
Privately, administration officials held a meeting in the White House Situation Room Wednesday over the House’s effort to release the files. Publicly, the president and the White House have tried to downplay the emails, with Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt both calling the latest release a “hoax.”
“It’s clear this is another Democrat + Mainstream Media hoax, fueled by fake outrage, to distract from the President’s wins,” Leavitt wrote on X Thursday.
After Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in on Wednesday, the Democrat signed the discharge petition, marking the final signature necessary to compel lawmakers to vote on the release of the records.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the vote will take place next week.
The tranche of newly released emails revealed that Epstein told Maxwell that President Donald Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of the disgraced financier’s victims. Another message from Epstein to author Michael Wolff says Trump “knew about the girls,” suggesting that the president was more aware of the convicted sex offender’s history of abuse than previously reported.
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Who are the four Republican House lawmakers who signed onto the discharge petition?
- Thomas Massie
- Nancy Mace
- Lauren Boebert
- Marjorie Taylor Greene
In photos: Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in after a 50-day delay
Arizona Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who was sworn in after a seven-week standoff, slammed President Donald Trump and Congress in a speech.
“What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority in this body has failed to do — hold Trump accountable as a coequal branch of government that we are,” Grijalva said after she was sworn in.
ICYMI: Full list of names in disgraced financier’s contact book
Jeffrey Epstein has garnered international attention for his crimes and alleged connection to powerful people while abusing girls for years.
The disgraced financier died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. His case continues to be in the public eye for his alleged ties to the famous – and names that are found in his alleged contact book.
Those names include Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and former Prince Andrew.
While those named in the book have not been accused of any wrongdoing, it hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists and the public from speculating on a connection.
Read the full story to see the names included in the documents previously released.
Lawyer for some Epstein survivors says clients feel ‘betrayed’
James Marsh, who represents a number of Epstein survivors, said his clients feel “betrayed” by the White House’s efforts to halt the release of the files.
“That leaves them feeling betrayed. And it’s a form of institutional betrayal that we see, whether we’re dealing with the Catholic church, the Boy Scouts of America. Anytime where there’s widespread sexual abuse of children, we have this institutional betrayal. We have this inability or unwillingness by institutions to do anything to protect the most vulnerable,” Marsh told CNN News Central.
“This is exactly what our clients have been experiencing for 30 years. This is no surprise to them. This is nothing new. They were involved with these individuals who are seemingly very preoccupied with this trafficking network that Jeffrey Epstein was operating.”
WATCH: Leavitt doubles down on Democrat ‘hoax’ as new Epstein emails come to light
‘Astounding development in American history’: House Democrat remarks on Situation Room meeting
After administration officials on Wednesday met with Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, who was one of just four Republicans who signed onto the discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein Files, in the White House Situation Room.
Virginia Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw told CNN News Central that the meeting marked an “astounding development in American history.”
“Well, yesterday was an extraordinary day. I remember the pictures of President Obama in the White House Situation Room watching the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden and all of the other history and history making decisions made in that room,” the Democrat told the network.
“For President Trump and the White House yesterday to use that room to browbeat Republican members of Congress, to aid and abet their coverup for the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein is really an astounding development in American history.”
Epstein survivors to join press conference on Capitol Hill next week
Reps. Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene plan to hold a press conference with Epstein’s survivors on Capitol Hill after the discharge petition reached the necessary 218 signatures.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the chamber will take a vote on releasing the files next week.
Trump is not considering granting clemency to Maxwell, White House says
Whistleblower information provided to the House Judiciary Committee suggested that Ghislaine Maxwell is working on filing a “Commutation Application,” the panel said Monday.
The White House shot down that idea, however, at Wednesday’s press conference following the release of the emails in which Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein mention Donald Trump.
“He’s answered this repeatedly,” Leavitt said of the president’s potential pardon of Maxwell. “It’s not something he’s talking about or even thinking about at this moment in time.”
In October, the president said he’d “have to take a look” at granting clemency to Maxwell.
Raskin questions why DOJ didn’t release emails
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin slammed the Justice Department for “deliberately withholding” information that could be “damaging” to the president.
There are “all kinds of emails that indicate that Donald Trump was perfectly situated to know what was going on and ensconced in that whole culture,” Raskin told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday.
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The Department of Justice must have these emails, he said.
The DOJ “hasn’t released any of these emails that mention Trump’s name and identify his role in all these activities. Those came from the estate of Epstein instead. So this is a demonstration that the government is very deliberately withholding the information that everybody is actually looking for and anything that could be damaging to Trump,” he said.
White House Press Secretary slams Epstein emails as a ‘hoax’
White House Press Secretary dubs the release of the Epstein emails a “Democrat + Mainstream Media hoax” intended to take away from the “President’s wins,” she wrote in a X post Thursday.
The president on Wednesday also described the release of the email exchanges a “hoax.”
