President Donald Trump abruptly interrupted a reporter who asked about newly released emails tied to Jeffrey Epstein that appear to reference his name. The exchange occurred after the House Oversight Committee published thousands of Epstein-related messages this week.
What the emails say
Among the records is a 2011 email from Epstein to author Michael Woff that includes the line that Trump “knew about the girls.” The message offers no detail; given Epstein’s history of sexually abusing underage girls, the brief remark has prompted renewed scrutiny and questions about what, if anything, Trump knew of Epstein’s conduct.
Other passages in the release refer to Trump as well. In one, Epstein wrote that Trump, then a private citizen described as a friend, “spent hours at my house” with a person whose name was redacted and labeled by Democrats on the committee as “Victim.” Republicans on the committee disputed that characterization and said the name in question corresponded to Virginia Giuffre, who has said she never witnessed Trump behaving inappropriately. Several passages again quote Epstein saying Trump “knew about the girls,” and one note claims Epstein had “gave” his ex-girlfriend to Trump.
The presidential exchange
REPORTER: Mr. President, what did Jeffrey Epstein mean in emails when he said you “knew about the girls”?
TRUMP: I know nothing about that. They would’ve announced that a long time ago. It’s really, what did he mean when he spent all the time with Bill Clinton, with the president of Harvard, who you know, that is Summers, Larry Summers, whatever his name is, and all of the other people that he spent time with.
Jeffrey Epstein and I had a very bad relationship for many years, but he also saw a strength because I was president. So he dictated a couple of memos to himself. Give me a break. You gotta find out what did he know with respect to Bill Clinton, with respect to the head of Harvard, with the respect of all of those people that he knew, including JPMorgan Chase.
REPORTER: Sir, if there’s nothing incriminating in the files–
TRUMP: Quiet! Quiet!
After that interruption, the president moved on to another reporter who asked about Venezuela.
Why this matters
The email release has renewed attention on how much information federal and state authorities hold about Epstein’s network. Over the summer, then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to reverse course about whether she had a client list connected to Epstein — at one point saying such a list was “sitting on my desk right now,” and later denying that a list existed. Reports have indicated Bondi told Trump his name appears in some of the records. The Justice Department has not yet released all potentially relevant files.
The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to demand that the Department of Justice produce Epstein-related files to Congress.
Audio of the exchange was broadcast from the White House briefing room.
