After the emails were made public, Trump criticized Democrats and called for a federal investigation into Clinton

• Context: Epstein, who is accused of child abuse, claimed that Trump “learned about the girls” in emails released by the US Congress.
• looks: Trump has already promised to release the Epstein files and suggested the financier was killed; Today, the struggle to escape this issue

Trump claimed on his platform, Truth Social, that the opposition’s release of the emails last Wednesday came from Democrats who are “doing everything they can, with their diminished power, to reignite the Epstein hoax.” In a counterattack, the president stated that US Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI would be ordered to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with influential Democrats.

The emails indicate that Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with one of the victims of the scheme and that he “knew about the girls,” according to letters written by the same financier in 2011. The messages suggest that Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking network was deeper than he himself claims since the case received widespread publicity in July.

These revelations also increased pressure on the Trump administration to release all Justice Department files related to Epstein. To contain the progress of the request in the chamber, Trump tried unsuccessfully to convince Republican members of Congress to block the initiative – which is now expected to be voted on next week, with approval expected.

The president’s attack comes at the most intense moment in the controversies surrounding the Epstein case since 2019, when, according to investigations, the millionaire committed suicide in his New York cell. Since then, Democrats and some Republicans have been pushing for full release of the federal dossier.

Trump, in turn, is trying to redirect the focus to Epstein’s former Democratic allies, such as Bill Clinton; Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary under Barack Obama; Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and major donor to the Democratic Party. He also cited JPMorgan, which paid US$290 million (more than R$1 billion) to settle accusations that it ignored warning signs when Epstein was a client.

“This is another scam by Russia, Russia, Russia, with all evidence pointing to the Democrats,” the US President wrote. “Records indicate that these men, and many others, spent most of their lives with Epstein and on his ‘island.’ Stay tuned!!!”

• Epstein’s emails: The former British prince and former ambassador appear in the archives

Despite the aforementioned references, there is no credible evidence that Clinton, Summers, or Huffman participated in the sex trafficking scheme. All deny any criminal involvement, though they admit, to some extent, to having had ties with Epstein in the past.

Democrats’ release of the emails put Trump on the defensive. At the beginning of the week, the White House called a crisis room meeting with Republican leaders to try to prevent a vote that would force the Justice Department to release the documents. The strategy didn’t work.

If the House approves the text next week, the Senate would also need to vote on a similar version, and Trump would have to approve the measure, if it passes.

In fact, Democrats – currently in opposition and in the minority in Congress – now want to publish the entire file on this issue. But for months, the FBI and Justice Department announced that after an internal investigation, no additional materials could be released without prejudice to key witnesses involved in the trial that convicted Epstein.

Trump’s allies say the release of the emails is part of an attempt to hurt the president, while critics point out that the Republican lived with Epstein for years before he broke off their friendship in the 2000s, after an episode involving a Mar-a-Lago resort employee.

Trump – who promised during his election campaign to reveal significant information about the Epstein scandal – considers this pressure from Democrats in Congress, with the publication of emails, to be part of a political campaign similar to the one that accused him of maintaining illegal relations with Russia during the 2016 election campaign.

In an attempt to once again distance himself from the political specter of Epstein, Trump argued on Truth Social that the millionaire was a “problem for the Democrats.” The Republican wrote that Epstein, a well-known figure in New York social life, “was a Democrat.”

In addition to Clinton, who lived with Epstein in the early 2000s, Trump said he had asked the Justice Department to investigate Summers and Huffman. The two men were named in 20,000 documents related to Epstein released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Trump’s targets also include the US bank JPMorgan. According to Reuters, in 2023, the bank paid billions of dollars to some of Epstein’s victims to settle accusations that he ignored his sex trafficking scheme. The settlement came after embarrassing revelations that JPMorgan ignored internal warnings and ignored red flags about Epstein, who was a client of the bank between 1998 and 2013. The bank, in turn, did not admit guilt in the settlement.

• Republican discomfort: The task force’s failure to prevent a vote on Epstein appears to be a warning to Trump ahead of an election year

Clinton traveled on Epstein’s private plane several times before the financier was convicted in 2008, while Summers accepted charitable donations from Epstein while he was president of Harvard University.

Hoffman admitted that he met Epstein several times in professional situations. He visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean over the weekend, according to previously published emails and memos. Hoffman, in turn, claimed that he met with Epstein to raise money for MIT. But he says he regrets his dealings with Epstein.

Furthermore, a series of messages exchanged between Epstein and Summers, showing a relationship between the confidants, appeared among emails released by Republicans, following the Democrats’ revelations last Wednesday. Messages exchanged, from 2013 to early 2019, showed the two men exchanging personal – and sometimes inappropriate – opinions on politics and relationships.

After the Wall Street Journal revealed a previous series of emails between Epstein and Summers in a 2023 report, a spokesman for the former treasurer told the American newspaper that he “deeply regrets contacting Epstein after his conviction.”

“It is extremely inappropriate for the president to order the Justice Department to investigate individual American citizens,” Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who now works at the law firm UB Greensfelder, said in an interview with Reuters. -This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.