Key points: Newly released Congressional emails show Jeffrey Epstein told contacts in 2018 that Russian diplomats — including Sergey Lavrov and the late Vitaly Churkin — could gain "insight" about President Donald Trump from him ahead of the July Trump–Putin meeting. The records include Epstein’s blunt assessments of Trump, claims that Trump knew about women at Mar‑a‑Lago, and a reference to an accuser later identified in other materials as Virginia Giuffre, who was reported to have died by suicide earlier this year. The Trump campaign has dismissed the disclosures as a hoax.
Leaked Emails: Epstein Offered Russia ‘Insight’ on Trump Ahead of 2018 Putin Summit
Key points: Newly released Congressional emails show Jeffrey Epstein told contacts in 2018 that Russian diplomats — including Sergey Lavrov and the late Vitaly Churkin — could gain "insight" about President Donald Trump from him ahead of the July Trump–Putin meeting. The records include Epstein’s blunt assessments of Trump, claims that Trump knew about women at Mar‑a‑Lago, and a reference to an accuser later identified in other materials as Virginia Giuffre, who was reported to have died by suicide earlier this year. The Trump campaign has dismissed the disclosures as a hoax.
10:16 PM, 11/13/2025Politics
Newly released emails show Epstein offering Russia "insight" into Trump
Hundreds of emails recently disclosed by Congressional investigators include messages in which Jeffrey Epstein suggested he could provide Russian officials with information about President Donald Trump ahead of Trump’s July 2018 meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
In June 2018, Epstein wrote to Thorbjorn Jagland — then Secretary General of the Council of Europe and a former Norwegian prime minister — saying, "I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me," a reference to longtime Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. Epstein also said he had previously spoken with Russia’s late U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who died in 2017.
"Churkin was great," Epstein wrote. "He understood Trump after our conversations. It is not complex. He must be seen to get something its that simple."
Those exchanges came just weeks before the July 2018 Helsinki summit, which was widely criticized as a foreign-policy setback for the U.S. In one message, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers called the meeting "appalling" and asked Epstein directly, "Do the Russians have stuff on Trump?"
Epstein described how he believed Trump viewed the encounter: "I'm sure his view is that it went super well," Epstein wrote to Summers. "He thinks he has charmed his adversary. Admittedly he has no idea of the symbolism. He has no idea of most things."
Beyond foreign-policy commentary, the emails contain blunt assessments of Trump’s character and claims about his knowledge of Epstein’s activities. In 2018, Epstein wrote to former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler, "you see, i know how dirty donald is," and suggested non-lawyers and New York business associates might not understand the consequences if a "fixer" cooperated with investigators, a likely reference to Michael Cohen.
In correspondence with journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein asserted that Trump had been aware of abuse at Mar-a-Lago and that this awareness had led to Epstein’s removal from the club. Epstein wrote that Trump had "asked me to resign, never a member ever," and that Trump "knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop," referring to Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein also claimed a woman later identified in other records as Virginia Giuffre "has spent hours at my house with him," adding that "He has never once been mentioned." The article that originally reported these emails said Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.
The Trump campaign rejected the disclosures. The campaign and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the emails part of a "Jeffrey Epstein Hoax" and said Democrats were using the documents as a political diversion. Leavitt also asserted the emails show Trump "did nothing wrong."
Other messages included an apparent 2015 reference to photos: Epstein asked New York Times reporter Landon Thomas if he would "like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen." In a separate exchange with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein warned that Trump was remaining silent: "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump," he wrote.
Context and caveats: These descriptions reflect what appears in the released emails; some assertions are Epstein's own claims and have not been independently verified in these messages. The disclosures raise questions about Epstein’s contacts and the information he alleged to possess regarding prominent figures, but they do not, on their face, prove any particular allegation.