AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Members of the House Oversight Committee have released dueling sets of documents related to the late Jeffrey Epstein. Democrats are highlighting three email threads that refer to President Trump. Meanwhile, Republicans have released more than 20,000 pages that they say provide more context. NPR's Stephen Fowler has been reading through all of the documents and joins us now with an update. Hi, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so let's start with the files that the Democrats are highlighting about President Trump. What do they say, exactly?
FOWLER: Well, those three email chains that Democrats initially released. There's also another dozen or so pages they've highlighted online.
CHANG: OK.
FOWLER: They include the disgraced financier Epstein discussing Trump. In 2011, Epstein emailed Ghislaine Maxwell - his associate who has been convicted on trafficking charges - called Trump the, quote, "dog that hasn't barked" and says Trump spent hours at his house with one of the alleged sex-trafficking victims. There's a 2015 thread with author Michael Wolff that saw Wolff suggest Epstein could get, quote, "valuable PR and political currency" if Trump denied being on Epstein's plane or at his house. And a 2019 exchange that saw Epstein say that, quote, "of course Trump knew about the girls, as he asked Ghislaine to stop." That email does not elaborate further.
CHANG: Wait. How has President Trump responded to these specific messages that mention him by name?
FOWLER: On his Truth Social account, he once again called questions around Epstein a hoax and said that, quote, "only a very bad or stupid Republican would fall into that trap." Here's what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today in a press briefing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KAROLINE LEAVITT: These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong. And what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.
CHANG: OK, well, as we said, the Republican majority on the Oversight Committee did release a full set of more than 20,000 pages of files today. Have they pointed to anything in those documents that support the White House's statement there?
FOWLER: Well, nothing specific. But a few of us at NPR have spent the day combing through these files that were released. We haven't made it through every single page, but here's a little bit of what we've seen. There's court records from Epstein's sex-trafficking and prostitution cases, 400 pages of attorney Alan Dershowitz's autobiography, financial market reports related to Epstein's career, emails with powerful people in politics and finance and academia, and actually, a good deal more about Donald Trump.
CHANG: Oh, really? Like what?
FOWLER: Well, Trump has said before that he and Epstein had this falling out a few decades ago over Epstein hiring away girls from Mar-a-Lago. Leavitt alluded to that rift a little bit in her comments we heard. And these email threads show Epstein spent a lot of time in 2016, '17 and '18 talking about Trump and his dislike of the president. For example, I found one 2017 message where Epstein wrote to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers that, quote, "I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump" and, quote, "not one decent cell in his body."
CHANG: OK. Well, this latest Epstein files revelation comes as the House has returned, of course. And I understand that they now have enough votes to advance what's called a discharge petition to seek the release of even more Epstein files, right? When is that vote happening?
FOWLER: Well, after nearly two months of delay, Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva was sworn in this afternoon. She's the 218th vote on this bipartisan petition seeking to get the Justice Department to release more about Epstein. That would get to the floor next week. But it's also important to note the petition would not necessarily pass in the Senate or be signed by President Trump. Trump's faced ongoing political fallout from his efforts to change the subject and downplay the Epstein files after campaigning on uncovering the truth.
CHANG: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler. Thank you, Stephen.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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