US lawmakers have released more than 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including some that mention President Donald Trump.
Early on Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email exchanges, including correspondence between Epstein, who died in 2019 in prison, and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
They also released emails between Epstein and the author Michael Wolff, who has written numerous books about Trump.
Within hours, House Republicans then released a massive tranche of documents to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to cherry-pick documents. They also said it was an attempt to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump.
Trump was a friend of Epstein's for years, but the president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
The BBC is still reading through the cache of documents and will provide updates as we get them. Here is what we know so far and how the White House has responded.
The first email released by Democrats is from 2011 and is between Epstein and Maxwell. In it, Epstein writes to Maxwell: I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him. Epstein goes on to write that Trump has never once been mentioned, including by a police chief.
Maxwell responded: I have been thinking about that... The victim's name was redacted in the email the Democrats released, although the unredacted version shows the name Virginia.
The White House said it refers to Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide earlier this year. In a statement, the White House said Giuffre repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever.
In exchanges with Wolff, Epstein discusses his connection to Trump during his first presidential campaign. Wolff offers strategies on managing the narrative surrounding Trump and Epstein’s historical ties as political tensions rise.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the email releases as selectively leaked efforts to smear Trump. She asserted that Trump distanced himself from Epstein years ago, challenging the narrative being propagated by House Democrats.
