The House oversight committee's investigation into Jeffrey Epstein has brought to light new email exchanges, despite the Donald Trump justice department previously downplaying the involvement of other individuals in Epstein's abuse of teen girls. An email released on November 12, 2010, shows an exchange between Epstein and an associate discussing "girls" and travel. Epstein initiated the conversation by asking about the associate's schedule, to which the associate responded with "the other girl name is [redacted]" the following morning.

Later that afternoon, the associate pressed for a call, stating, "I am with tigrane he would like to meet you he is here with me in Ibiza/with 8 top girls he said he would like to build some thing with you/can you come to Ibiza we have a huge house or how can we orgnise this/ meeting even Jean Luc could doo a great biz also/ he has the most amizing top models on stand by I told him not to do any/deals with anybody before he meet with you." The figure referred to as "tigrane" could not be identified by the Guardian. The associate also mentioned, "He stoped working with IMG and Trump wi here please call me and let me/ know what is your plans/ warmest regards," seemingly referencing Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent and friend of Epstein. Epstein replied, "i will be in paris tom000rw night." Hours after the mention of "8 top girls," the associate wrote again, proposing, "can you come to Ibiza or you can send us the ticket to come with Tigrane and five girls to Paris because they have there return ticket from Barcelona if they are living from here it will be great if you can arrenge for us tickets for Paris please let me know so we can get orgnized." Jean-Luc Brunel was later arrested in December 2020 at Charles de Gaulle airport on suspicion of crimes including alleged rape, sexual assault of minors, and human trafficking of underage girls for sexual exploitation. Brunel, suspected of providing teenage girls to Epstein, was found dead in prison in February 2022 in an apparent suicide.

This email exchange occurred almost exactly a year after Epstein was released from a Florida jail, where he served a brief sentence for solicitation of prostitution, including involving a minor. It is important to note that nothing in these specific emails suggests that Donald Trump was present or a participant in the subject of their discussion. Trump, who had been friends with Epstein before an apparent fallout approximately 15 years prior, has consistently denied wrongdoing. His ties to Epstein have been a point of contention for months, largely due to his justice department's handling of the investigation.

In July, justice department officials stated that their systematic review of Epstein investigative files "did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing" and found "no incriminating 'client list'." They also claimed, "There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties." This memo was met with strong disagreement from Epstein's accusers, who have maintained that others participated in his abuse. Trump's political allies and supporters, who believed Epstein colluded with high-profile individuals to traffic teen girls, expressed anger, especially as the president had promised to release the files.

However, Trump's name appears repeatedly in other documents released by oversight committee members. Oversight Democrats released email exchanges with Epstein from 2011, 2015, and 2019. In these communications, Epstein described Trump as the "dog that hasn’t barked" and alleged that Trump had "spent hours" at his home with one of Epstein’s victims. Epstein also claimed that "of course" Trump "knew about the girls." Documents released by Oversight Republicans hours later, spanning 20,000 pages, indicated Epstein kept apprised of Trump, with emails between Epstein and his pilot discussing Trump’s air travel and Epstein appearing to consume news about the president’s political challenges. These missives also showed Epstein speaking negatively about Trump. In December 2018, Epstein wrote to former treasury secretary Larry Summers that "trump – borderline insane. dersh, a few feet further from the border but not by much," an apparent reference to his former attorney, Alan Dershowitz. Summers questioned, "Will trump crack into insanity?" Epstein responded, "This is not a new phenomenon for him. in the past he was told not to come out of his apt. thats how he got through near personal bankruptcy. is strength is remarkable. he is pounded 24/7," adding, "I hope someone close to him gets indicted, but not sure, otherwise the pressure of the unknown will force him to do crazy things."

On Wednesday, a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, commented to the Guardian, "These emails prove literally nothing." Earlier that day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted that Democrats had "selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump." Leavitt identified the "unnamed victim" mentioned in these emails as Virginia Giuffre, whom she remarked "repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever." Leavitt also claimed, "Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre." She concluded, "These stories are nothing more than 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." Asked for further comment about the exchange mentioning "girls," Jackson reiterated, "These emails prove literally nothing. Liberal outlets are desperately trying to use this Democrat distraction to talk about anything other than Democrats getting utterly defeated by President Trump in the shutdown fight. We won’t be distracted, and the entire administration will continue fulfilling the promises the president was elected on, including Making America Affordable Again." The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Separately, months before his death, Jeffrey Epstein wrote a paranoid email to himself in February 2019, rambling about Donald Trump. The disgraced financier claimed that the President had often visited his Palm Beach home during a period when a redacted individual worked at Mar-a-Lago. Epstein wrote, "Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period," and "He never got a massage." Facing new charges of abusing dozens of girls following a bombshell Miami Herald investigation in 2019, Epstein appeared to be spiraling. This was more than a decade after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. In his self-addressed email, the pedophile seemed to downplay the significance of his abuse to victims, writing, "the girls returned the house multiple times. For 200 dollars for a rub and tug. No sex. Some worked in the local massage parlors. Most in their twenties." The full reasoning and context behind this particular email are unclear, though he forwarded it the following day to author Michael Wolff, who was writing an exposé on Trump at the time.

Donald Trump banned Epstein from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, in October 2007, reportedly "for being a creep to his female employees, including Virginia Giuffre." Trump has since stated that Epstein was "stealing" young women who worked at his estate. The intense pressure resulting from the Miami Herald's three-part series, which identified over 60 women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein as underage girls and exposed his 2008 plea deal with then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta that granted immunity to unnamed co-conspirators, ultimately led to Epstein's arrest in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York. He died in a New York jail cell from an apparent suicide one month later.

The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, on Wednesday branded the email dump a politically motivated "smear" campaign. She reiterated Giuffre's prior statements about Trump, where she absolved him of any wrongdoing, saying, "The 'unnamed victim' referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and 'couldn't have been friendlier' to her in their limited interactions." Giuffre was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell while employed as a spa attendant at the Mar-a-Lago Club in 2000, when she was 16 years old.