Newly released emails from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday have raised fresh questions about the relationship between US President Donald Trump and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a message, Epstein wrote Trump had "spent hours at my house” with one of the victims, suggesting he knew more about the abuse than he has acknowledged, The New York Times reported.
Messages also emerged in which Epstein asserts that Trump knew about the girls, who the investigators revealed to be underage. Other messages show Epstein contemplating how to address the media about questions on Trump, as he is a political figure.
The White House has slammed the leak, saying it was a bid to 'smear' Trump.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump."
"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," she said.
"The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre," she added.
Of the three emails released, one was addressed to Epstein's longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, while the other two were to author Michael Wolff.
In an email in April 2011, Epstein wrote to Maxwell, "I want you to realise that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”
Epstein added that an unnamed victim “spent hours at my house with him, he (Trump) has never once been mentioned.” Maxwell wrote back, "I have been thinking about that".
In another mail that Epstein wrote to Wolff, dated January 2019, he said: "Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
In the third mail sent in December 2015, Wolff warned Epstein about Trump's media interview with CNN. He wrote, "CNN is planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards.”
Epstein replied saying, "If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote back.
Trump, earlier, had denied being involved or having knowledge of Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. He said he and Epstein were once friendly but had a falling out later.
Epstein died by suicide in federal prison in 2019.
The development is likely to add pressure on the White House to release the Epstein files.