A protester holds up a photo of the future President Donald Trump with financier Jeffrey Epstein at a rally in Augusta, Georgia, on Aug. 2, 2025. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a federal sex trafficking trial.

WASHINGTON – Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, wrote that President Donald Trump "spent hours at my house" with one Epstein's victims, according to emails House Democrats released Nov. 12.

The White House called the release of emails a "smear." Trump attended parties and flew on Epstein’s plane during the 1990s. But Trump later ousted Epstein from his club and forcefully denied knowing about the sex trafficking. Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial.

"The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects," Trump said on Truth Social the afternon of Nov. 12, after the House Republicans released 23,000 additional pages of Epstein documents. "Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap."

The Democratic revelations came as the House prepares to swear in a new lawmaker from Arizona, Democrat Adelita Grijalva. She is expected to provide the final signature needed to force a vote on legislation that would release all Department of Justice records about the Epstein investigation.

"These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," White House Press Secretary Karline Leavitt told reporters.

'No deflections’: Trump demands GOP stay out of Epstein docs fight

Trump urged Republicans in Congress to stay out of Democrats’ push to release all the Epstein documents after Wednesday’s release of three Epstein emails that mentioned the president’s name.

“There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

In his post, Trump accused House Democrats of releasing the emails – one in which Epstein says Trump “knew about the girls” – because Democrats lost the fight over the government shutdown.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” Trump said. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.”

Four House Republicans among have joined all House Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force a vote on a bill demanding the Justice Department release all documents in the Epstein investigation. The four GOP lawmakers are Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

Wednesday’s swearing-in of recently elected Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona would be the final vote to approve the discharge petition – but only if the four Republicans keep their signatures.

--Joey Garrison

White House: No Trump pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is not weighing a pardon for Epstein’s aide, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring to abuse minors.

“It’s not something he’s talking about or even thinking about,” Leavitt said.

--Bart Jansen

White House calls Epstein emails a ‘distraction campaign’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Epstein emails “proved absolutely nothing" about Trump’s connection to the accused sex trafficker and served as a “distraction campaign” from Republican successes.

“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than that President Trump did nothing wrong,” Leavitt told reporters Nov. 12.

Asked why the Justice Department wouldn't release all of its investigative files on Epstein, Leavitt said the administration has done more than any other to release information about Epstein, including releasing tens of thousands of documents and asking to release grand-jury testimony, which judges refused to approve.

“This is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party,” Leavitt said. “This is another distraction campaign.”

--Bart Jansen

House Republicans release deluge of Epstein docs

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released what they said were “20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.”

The committee did not say in its statement whether copies of the documents were new to the public domain or whether they made up the entirety of the documents in the committee’s possession.

--Erin Mansfield

Virginia Roberts Giuffre said she met Trump as a teenager

In her book, “Nobody’s Girl,” the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused Epstein of treating her as a sex slave, wrote about her experience meeting Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

Roberts Giuffre wrote that her father was a maintenance worker at the club and helped her get a job as a locker room attendant in the summer of 2000. (She was born in 1983.) She said “it couldn’t have been more than a few days” after her first day at work when her father attempted to introduce her to Trump.

“Trump couldn’t have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic that I was there,” Roberts Giuffre wrote. “’Do you like kids?’ he asked. ‘Do you babysit at all?’”

She wrote Trump had friends who needed child care, and soon she was babysitting “children of the elite.” Roberts Giuffre died by suicide in April.

--Erin Mansfield

Democrats release Epstein emails and call for more

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee, called the emails "serious and disturbing."

"We won’t stop until we end this White House cover-up," Garcia said on social media Nov. 12. "Release the files, NOW."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt alleged that the unnamed victim in the emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim she said “repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing.” She called the release of emails part of “bad-faith efforts to distract” from Trump’s accomplishments.

“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” Leavitt said. “The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she already released Epstein records other than pornographic videos and documents naming victims in the case. The House bill would still face a vote in the Senate.

What do the emails say about Trump?

Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee released several emails that mention Trump to increase pressure on the Justice Department to release additional records.

"I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump," Epstein wrote in one email to Ghislaine Maxwell on April 2, 2011. The email continues after the name of an alleged victim of Epstein is redacted: "spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned."

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in sex acts.

Democrats alleged Maxwell is getting preferential treatment in prison after speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Another Epstein email to author Michael Wolff on Jan. 31, 2019, said "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop." At the time of publication, Wolff had not replied to a text message from USA TODAY requesting comment.

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein, the late billionaire financier, "sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes" in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, according to the 2019 federal indictment.

His case continues to draw attention because of the bold-faced names who attended his parties and have shown up in evidence collected during the investigation against him. These high-profile figures include Trump, former President Bill Clinton and the former Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom.

Six years after Epstein's death, hundreds of women who call themselves Survivor Sisters are applying public pressure to identify Epstein associates they allege assaulted them or participated in his trafficking ring.

In the United Kingdom, King Charles III stripped the titles and honors from his younger brother, Prince Andrew, because of his connection to Epstein. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, as he is now known, has denied knowing about sexual abuse in connection with Epstein.

Michael Wolff was a freelance USA TODAY contributor from 2012 to early 2017. USA TODAY had no knowledge of any relationship between him and Jeffrey Epstein, nor any actions beyond his submissions for publication. We are committed to integrity and transparency, as we uphold our editorial standards and maintain the trust of our readers.

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump named in Epstein emails released by Dems. Latest updates in the saga

Reporting by Bart Jansen and Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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