Donald Trump was plunged into crisis over the release of Jeffrey Epstein emails on Wednesday, calling an emergency summit at the Situation Room in the White House.
The emails, released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, reveal that the Epstein frequently mentioned Trump in correspondence over a 15-year period.
Top Trump officials met in the White House Situation Room amid bipartisan efforts in the House to force a vote on releasing the DOJ’s case files related to Epstein.
The meeting included Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Republican Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, according to sources.
Boebert is one of the leading MAGA lawmakers in Congress pushing the Justice Department to publish their trove of Epstein files.
Karoline Leavitt appeared to confirm the meeting took place during a Wednesday briefing.
A reporter asked Trump’s Press Secretary whether the White House was trying to pressure Boebert at the meeting to not sign a petition calling for the full release of the Epstein files.
‘Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please?’ Leavitt asked the reporter.
GOP Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert met with top members of the Trump administration inside the White House following the explosive release of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails discussing his relationship with the President
Epstein claimed that Trump spent hours with one of his victims, Virginia Giuffre
Patel was one of the DOJ leaders who met with Boebert following the Epstein email release
‘Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress to address their concerns?’
Leavitt refused to discuss the details of the conversations but let slip that they took place in the Situation Room, usually reserved for classified briefings.
The White House press conference came after a tranche of emails was released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee showing Epstein emailing Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as the author Michael Wolff.
In an email dated April 2, 2011, Epstein wrote to Maxwell: ‘i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virignia [sic] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75% there.’
Maxwell replied: ‘I have been thinking about that…’
The Democrats redacted the victim’s name, including in a 2011 email Epstein sent Maxwell which claimed the girl ‘spent hours at my house with’ Trump.
The 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.
Leavitt called the email dump a politically motivated ‘smear’ campaign and repeated Giuffre’s former statements about Trump in which she absolved him of any wrongdoing.
Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year, was recruited by Maxwell while employed as a spa attendant at the Mar-a-Lago Club in 2000. She was 16 years old.
Trump expelled Epstein from his club around October 2007 ‘for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre,’ Leavitt said.
Trump with his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago Club on February 12, 2000
The context of their exchange is not clear. Around three years earlier, Epstein was jailed in Florida after pleading guilty to solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
The communications were released after the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Epstein’s estate earlier this year.
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails, and he has not been charged with any crime in relation to Epstein or Maxwell.
In a court deposition, Giuffre said under oath that she didn’t believe Trump had any knowledge of Epstein’s misconduct with underage girls.
And in her recently released memoir, she described meeting Trump only once, when she worked as a spa attendant at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and did not accuse him of wrongdoing.
Giuffre wrote that she was introduced to Trump by her father, who also worked at the club. She described Trump as friendly and said he offered to help her get babysitting jobs with parents at the club.
Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, have argued that she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after the Blanche interview.
