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 – “Dirty.” “F--king crazy.” “Borderline insane.” A Mafia don but with the “great dangerous power” of being America’s president and commander in chief.

In the years before his death in what was ruled a suicide, that's how Jeffrey Epstein described his longtime friend and former confidant Donald Trump, according to a trove of the convicted sex offender’s texts and emails just released by the House Oversight Committee.

But perhaps the most intriguing thing Epstein said about Trump in the 20,000-plus pages of emails provided by his estate was this: "I am the one able to take him down.”

House Democrats released emails Nov. 12 from Epstein saying Trump "spent hours at my house" with one of the disgraced financier's victims and that he "knew about the girls." Democrats said the emails raise questions about what Trump knew about Epstein's crimes, which included allegedly sexually abusing potentially hundreds of women and girls and trafficking them to other wealthy men.

The White House and Trump himself have tried to spin the document release − and a later one by Republicans − as being a giant nothingburger. "These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Nov. 12.

A USA TODAY review of those documents shows that Epstein had significant concerns about Trump's behavior and character.

'you see, i know how dirty donald is'

On Feb. 8, 2017, three weeks after Trump first took office, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told Epstein that, "It's ok."

So far, Summers said of the new president, "He didn’t wreck (the) world and avoided scandal."

Epstein, in a shorthand and typo-ridden response, said, "recall ive told you ,, I have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes- dangerous."

On Aug. 23, 2018, Epstein was emailing back and forth with a friend, Kathryn Ruemmler, about Trump's legal and criminal exposure, apparently in connection with an ongoing "hush-money" investigation in New York.

“It makes no difference whether it was his money. Issue is failure to disclose,” said Ruemmler, the former Obama administration White House counsel. “Plus, fact that he has lied his ass off about it makes clear that he knew it was illegal.”

“you see, i know how dirty donald is,” Epstein replied. “my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. what it means to have your fixer flip.”

Days earlier, Trump’s longtime fixer and personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to fraud and campaign finance violations, implicating Trump in his payments to two women for their silence over alleged affairs with the then-presidential candidate just before the 2016 election. Trump would eventually be convicted of falsifying business records to cover up they payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

'Gambino was never the commander in chief'

In December of 2018, Epstein was dishing with Reid Weingarten, a prominent white-collar defense attorney who represented him during Epstein’s federal investigation into alleged sex trafficking.

“you might want to tell your dem friends that treating trump like a mafia don, ignores the fact that he has great dangerous power,” Epstein wrote Weingarten on Dec. 20, 2018. “Tightening the noose too slowly, risks a very bad situation. . Gambino was never the commander in chief there was little gambino could do as the walls closed in. not so with this maniac."

That was a possible reference to Gambino crime family kingpin John Gotti, the infamous “Teflon Don” who was sent to prison for life by New York federal prosecutors after decades of escaping justice.

Weingarten replied that Epstein was making “Not a stupid point” and that Trump “is starting to behave very erratically.”

Epstein’s response?

“borderline insane, and corroberated by some that are close."

Epstein, who’d had a falling-out with Trump more than a decade earlier, was not believed to be close to Trump during his presidency.

Two weeks before Trump’s first-term inauguration in January 2017, Epstein confided to a New York Times reporter that Trump’s unpredictability would be a factor when dealing with nuclear-armed despots like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

“Donald is f--cking crazy,” Epstein wrote Jan. 2, 2017, fully spelling out the curse word. “I told you that."

On March 24, 2018, New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr., texted Epstein to say Trump “is scaring the sh-t out of me now. He could well tank global economy. … Maybe it's time for you to jump in now.”

Epstein responded: “he feels alone, and is nuts !!! , I told everyone from day one. evil beyond belief mad, and most thought i was speaking metaphorically, its obvious he could crack. stormy daniels. ? lies after lies aflter lies.”

'i am the one able to take him down'

In December 2018, the FBI and Justice Department were investigating Epstein on sex trafficking charges after bombshell revelations in the Miami Herald about his sweetheart plea deal a decade earlier. That plea agreement was overseen by the top federal prosecutor in Miami, Alex Acosta, whom Trump had later appointed secretary of labor.

“It will all blow over! They're really just trying to take down Trump and doing whatever they can to do that...!” an unidentified person wrote to Epstein on Dec. 3, 2018.

“yes thx,” Epstein replied. “its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.”

Epstein was first charged in 2006 with solicitation of prostitution in Florida. In 2008, Acosta and his prosecutors agreed to a controversial plea deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution on sex trafficking charges despite a draft indictment outlining 60 criminal counts against him.

On July 6, 2019, seven months after claiming he was the one who could take down Trump, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges after his private plane touched down in New Jersey.

Federal prosecutors in New York had concluded they weren’t bound by the terms of his earlier non-prosecution deal. Six days later, amid public outrage over the Epstein plea deal, Acosta resigned as labor secretary.

A month after that, on Aug. 10, guards found Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Investigators concluded he killed himself.

Trump, who was in office when Epstein was arrested, said during his 2024 presidential campaign that he’d open the government’s Epstein files. He is now seeking to prevent their release.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'I am the one able to take him down.' What Jeffrey Epstein said about Donald Trump.

Reporting by Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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