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Summary
Late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said about Donald Trump in 2018: "I am the one able to take him down", released documents show
The private messages are part of more than 20,000 files obtained from the disgraced financier's estate and released by US lawmakers yesterday, including several that mention the US president and other prominent figures
The White House has dismissed the significance of these files, with deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson telling the BBC: "These emails prove literally nothing"
Trump and Epstein knew each other for years in Palm Beach, Florida, but the president has said they fell out two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein
Other documents in the files include a 2011 message which appears to confirm that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was photographed with Virginia Giuffre
The House of Representatives is set to vote next week on forcing the justice department to release more files related to the investigation into Epstein
Epstein files vote happening next week, says House speaker
REUTERSUS House Speaker Mike Johnson said the vote would occur next week
The House of Representatives will vote next week on a bill known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The aim of the bill is to make the justice department release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters a vote would take place next week, [as] soon as we get back", following the vote to the US government shutdown on Wednesday night.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva's swearing in to Congress on Wednesday triggered the vote, as the Arizona congresswoman immediately signed a discharge petition calling for the release of the Epstein case files.
Hers was the 218th and final signature needed to trigger a floor vote.
How lawmakers forced a vote on releasing the Epstein files
Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from New YorkGETTY IMAGESRepresentatives Thomas Massie, a Republican (left), and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, jointly led the discharge petition
Last night, a petition in the House of Representatives to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files reached the required threshold to move forward.
A discharge petition is designed to allow lawmakers to sidestep leadership and force a bill to the House floor. In this case, that bill would be the release of the Epstein files.
Discharge petitions are fairly complicated and hard to execute successfully. First, they require 218 lawmakers to sign on.
That threshold has just been reached, with newest Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva signing on as her first act. Now, there's a ticking clock for the bill to come to a vote. That could happen as early as next week, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
If the bill passes the House, it will move on to the Senate. Republican senators haven't said much yet on where they stand and it requires 60 votes to pass the upper chamber - a high threshold.
Republican Thomas Massie, one of the architects of the bipartisan discharge petition, told Politico that he thinks other Republicans will support the measure when it hits the floor.
“I’m certain the House vote will succeed,” he said.
What have Epstein's victims said?
REUTERSAnnie Farmer speaking at a rally in support of Epstein's victims in September
Annie Farmer, one of Epstein's accusers and a key witness in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial, shared a statement after the emails were released, saying that the more information that comes out, the more questions arise.
"Survivors deserve more than a trickle of information," she says.
Farmer demanded the "full release" of the so-called Epstein files and said "the estimated one thousand women and girls who were harmed by Epstein and his associates deserve full transparency".
Liz Stein, who sued Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, told MSNBC: “It’s clear that this administration has an issue with this information being released."
Haley Robson, another one of Epstein’s accusers, told CNN that survivors have to “relive” their memories each time a portion of the documents are released - and that "transparency" is key as not releasing the documents makes it "obvious that they're hiding something".
Controversy over files is of Trump's own making - Washington reporter
Naomi Lim, a White House reporter at the Washington Examiner, tells the BBC that the current controversy over the Epstein files is one of Trump's own making.
Lim says it's members of Trump's own Maga base who have been pushing for the release of these files and it's not known why the administration is going to such "extraordinary lengths" to prevent that.
She adds that the lack of transparency "really grinds people" and the apparent pressure being applied to Republican's such as Lauren Boebert"is actually making it a bigger story."
Democrat says files release is about transparency, not Trump
Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California who co-sponsored the petition for the justice department to release all Epstein files, has previously said releasing the files isn't about attacking Trump, but about transparency.
"Here we have Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Thomas Massie," Khanna told the Washingtonian earlier this month, speaking of Republicans who support the release of the files.
"It’s a broad coalition. That’s why this is working with some MAGA voters, because they’re saying, 'Okay, he’s not doing this just to score points, he’s doing this to root out corruption in government.'"
Khanna told the outlet he wants Americans to know that the government doesn't have "different rules for the rich and powerful".
"So Epstein, to me, is about showing the American people that the government can be trusted, that we’re on their side."
Wolff likens latest documents release to 'investigation closing in on its subject'
REUTERSWolff on NBC back in 2018
The author Michael Wolff - who featured in two of the email exchanges initially published by Democrats on the Oversight Committee - has been speaking to US outlet the Daily Beast.
Wolff says the Oversight Committee is "just releasing whatever they can get" but that he thinks "this is all signs of an investigation closing in on its subject".
"I’m not sure they realise sometimes that the subject is not so much Jeffrey Epstein, but Donald Trump," Wolff adds.
He also says that Donald Trump has "clearly been trying to pardon" Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking girls to Epstein.
"If he breaks his deal with Ghislaine, she will talk. And her method of talking is a method of leaks, which – as the birthday letter was – could be damaging to Donald Trump," Wolff tells the Daily Beast.
In response to Wolff's latest remarks, White House Director Steven Cheung used an expletive when describing Wolff as a liar and "proven to be a fraud".
"He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
Emails show exchange with former Treasury Secretary
One email exchange in the latest release of documents from the House Oversight Committee appears to show Epstein's correspondence with former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in October 2017.
Summers emails Epstein that he is "flying back" and asks him, "How is life among the lucrative and louche?"
Epstein emails back, "when we meet I will endeavor to mesmerize you with stores of D.C. so wild. !!!" he adds.
In one email, Summers gives Epstein his opinion of Trump early in his presidency, writing: "DJT is world s luckiest guy in terms of opposition, economy etc. still think his world will collapse".
A spokesperson for Summers said they did not have a comment on the record, but referred the BBC to past statements by Summers.
A representative for Summers told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 that the former treasury official "deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction".
Here's what you need to know about the latest Epstein files
Just joining us? Let's get you up to speed on the detail of the latest documents released relating to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
- On Wednesday, US lawmakers released more than 20,000 pages of documents from the estate of Epstein, including some that mention US President Donald Trump
- The documents, which the BBC has not independently verified, show a message from Epstein in 2018 about Trump: "I knowhow dirty donald is" and "I am the one able to take him down"
- White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson tells the BBC "these emails prove literally nothing"
- The House of Representatives will vote next week on whether the justice department should release all of the Epstein files
- Congressman Thomas Massie said yesterday a few Republicans told his office privately they're going to vote in favour, with Massie saying, "I think that could snowball"
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