Newly released emails from convicted and deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein alleged that President Donald Trump knew about the girls he was trafficking and that Trump had spent “hours” with one of the trafficked girls in Epstein’s house, Politico reported. Trump has tried to deflect, accusing Democrats of bringing up the “hoax” to distract from the ongoing government shutdown.

In a 2019 email from Epstein to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote, “Trump said he asked me to resign [from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club], never a member ever…. [O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked [my accomplice] ghislaine [Maxwell] to stop.”

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In a 2011 email to Maxwell, Epstein referred to Trump as a “dog that hasn’t barked,” suggesting that Trump didn’t talk to legal authorities or the press about Epstein’s activities. Epstein also said that Trump spent hours with one of Epstein’s victims at Epstein’s house.

Trump recently relocated Maxwell to a lower-security prison where she’s “much happier” and allegedly gets both personally delivered meals and playtime with a puppy. She has denied that the president had any involvement in Epstein’s misdeeds. She is also seeking Trump’s presidential pardon.

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The newly released emails were made available by Epstein’s estate to congressional investigators on an Oversight panel, which has been investigating the government’s files on Epstein for months. Trump accused Democrats of releasing the emails to distract from their role in the ongoing 43-day-long government shutdown.

“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in statement. “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.”

Nevertheless, Trump is likely to come under increasing fire as the House seems likely to vote soon on whether to release other files related to Epstein and his high-profile clients.

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