On the Monday, November 17, 2025 episode of The Excerpt podcast: The newly released cache of 20,000 pages from the Epstein files last week has once again raised questions about his relationship with President Donald Trump. USA TODAY White House Correspondent Bart Jansen joins The Excerpt to break down the latest.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

The Epstein files are back in the news with fresh speculation about how deep President Donald Trump's involvement goes.

Hello, and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, November 17th, 2025. A new trove of 20,000 pages released last week has everyone talking about how much Trump knew and when did he know it. Cue the coming house vote on releasing the full batch of documents that's been supposedly sitting on US Attorney General Pam Bondi's desk since she took office.

What does this latest batch of Epstein documents revealed and what are the chances that we'll see even more before the year is out? For more on that, I'm now joined by USA TODAY White House Correspondent Bart Jansen. Bart, thank you so much for joining me.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Dana Taylor:

Last Wednesday, we saw a new batch of Epstein documents, including both emails and texts released by the House Oversight Committee. Let's start with Trump. What do we learn here?

Bart Jansen:

Democrats highlighted several emails in particular where he's mentioned repeatedly. One of those emails from April of 2011 says that he spent hours in Epstein's house with one of Epstein's victims. Another email in January of 2019 said that Trump knew about the girls Epstein told an author that he was exchanging emails with. In both of those cases, Democrats wanted to highlight that Trump apparently was well-known to Epstein and so was part of his circle, but Trump has denied knowing about any of Epstein's wrongdoing. The White House says these emails prove nothing and that, in fact, the victim mentioned in that email has said that Trump did not have sex with the girls that Epstein is accused of abusing.

Dana Taylor:

We also learned that Epstein appeared eager to help one of America's biggest enemies, the Russians. What was the thrust of that email?

Bart Jansen:

We saw in an email from June of 2018, about a month before Trump had a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, that Epstein was offering basically to a European middleman to invite Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister to learn more about Trump. Epstein was saying, "Hey, I can tell you about Trump, what you need to know as you go into this summit." We don't know from these emails whether Epstein actually got through to Lavrov or what information he provided.

Dana Taylor:

Bart, did we learn more about the kind of relationship Trump had with Epstein?

Bart Jansen:

Well, Trump has acknowledged that he was friends with Epstein during the '90s. He attended parties with Epstein. He flew on Epstein's plane, but they had a falling out and Trump ousted him from his club, Mar-a-Lago. He was upset that Epstein was recruiting women who worked for Mar-a-Lago to work for Epstein instead and he said that Epstein acted creepy around women. There was this falling out. He says that he was not aware of any of the wrongdoing that Epstein was subsequently charged with.

One of the interesting emails that emerged last week was mentioned that Epstein told an acquaintance that Trump was among his guests at Thanksgiving in 2017, which would've been the first Thanksgiving in Trump's first term as president. The White House didn't answer directly about whether he had attended Thanksgiving at Epstein's house. This would've been after the falling out and so we don't know whether he did, in fact, attend, but again, the White House says that the emails prove nothing. And that even attending a dinner wouldn't mean that you were participating in illegal activities.

Dana Taylor:

Staying on Trump here for a bit, there are those who suggest that some diehard MAGA supporters, for them, the release of any documents that prove a deeper association with Jeffrey Epstein, including that Trump was fully aware of his sex trafficking of underage girls, might be the line in the sand that some just won't cross. What are your thoughts on that?

Bart Jansen:

Well, there's clearly a bit of a fracture in the Republican Party about how much of these records should come out. This enormous batch, 23,000 pages of records that the House Oversight Committee released last week, are from a subpoena of Epstein's estate. The committee asked the estate for all sorts of documents, basically about flight logs, about, again, email and the texts that have shown up, including communications that involved any president or vice president.

What the lawmakers and others are still advocating for is the release of Justice Department files into the Epstein investigation. There was an investigation in Florida around 2006, 2008, in which Epstein was jailed for 13 months for soliciting a minor for prostitution. As part of that plea deal, a federal investigation against him was dropped. Then fast-forward to 2019, he was indicted federally on charges of conspiracy for trafficking in minors.

What lawmakers and other advocates are saying is that all of the records from that later investigation should be released to find out who all Epstein knew, who may have been participating in this trafficking ring, and who might have helped him keep the trafficking ring secret. That's where the questions get most fraught for President Trump because of his previous relationship with Epstein and other very public figures. Of course, other boldface names turned up in these records, such as a birthday book that was put together for Epstein's 50th birthday, which mentions people such as Former President Bill Clinton and Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

Lawmakers and other advocates are urging the Justice Department to release all of its records from that investigation. Attorney General Pam Bondi has refused to release more records because she says they've already released everything that they can, but that pornographic videos and records that named the victims should not be released. That's where things stood in July and that's when Trump started saying, "Well, the case is closed. It's over. Nobody needs to ask about it anymore." He has tried to discourage additional questions into the subject, but lawmakers continue to ask for all of the Justice Department files to be released. That is a vote on legislation that we're expecting this week about whether to force the Justice Department to release more than it already has.

Dana Taylor:

But what are the chances it passes?

Bart Jansen:

Well, it took a petition signed by a majority of house members of both parties to force this vote on the legislation. The presumption is that the legislation will be approved this week that sends it to the Senate, where its outcome is uncertain. And of course, as a piece of legislation, it would still have to be signed by President Trump to go into effect. Trump has been opposed to this legislation. He doesn't even want them to vote on it, so it's unclear what will ultimately result from this bill, but the vote in the house should be approved.

Of course, that's key to four Republicans demanding this vote, in addition to all Democrats. Those four Republicans, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado is what enabled this vote. Boebert got a presentation in the White House situation room basically trying to discourage her from joining this vote or to withdraw her support and she has so far refused. These four at least Republicans are expected to join Democrats in approving that bill.

Dana Taylor:

Bart, it was recently reported that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator who's now serving a 20-year sentence at a minimum security prison, is seeking a commutation of her sentence by the president. How does that complicate or does it complicate the president's tenuous position with regards to Epstein?

Bart Jansen:

Well, to his critics or skeptics about his denials, it looks as if the Justice Department is providing favorable prison treatment to this guilty conspirator with Epstein, and that providing her clemency would further inflame that criticism. But Trump has said he has not yet considered clemency for Maxwell and the White House repeated that denial last week. Of course the president can change his mind, he can do whatever he wants on pardons or commutation, so we'll have to keep watching it. But to this point, he has denied that he's considering clemency for Maxwell.

Dana Taylor:

Bart, if you had to pick one major takeaway from last week's tranche of new Epstein documents, what would that be?

Bart Jansen:

Well, I think it suggests that this Epstein scandal and the potential release of more documents could haunt the Trump administration for the rest of its second term. He has said that nothing more needs to be released, but his critics and skeptics of how much has been released continue to demand that everything come out. We're at a bit of an impasse right now in terms of the Justice Department records, which would include interviewed notes that the FBI took with witnesses in this case. There could be a wealth of additional information. Whether that comes out is uncertain, but as the demands to have it come out continue, it could roil the administration for months or potentially years to come.

Dana Taylor:

Bart Jansen is a USA TODAY White House correspondent. Thank you so much, Bart, for taking the time today.

Bart Jansen:

Thanks for having me.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will the remaining Epstein files ever see the light of day? | The Excerpt

Reporting by Dana Taylor, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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