Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a 2011 email that Donald Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a victim of sex trafficking and said in a separate message years later that Trump “knew about the girls,” according to communications released Wednesday.
The emails made public by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee add to the questions about Trump’s friendship with Epsteinand about any knowledge he may have had in what prosecutors call a yearslong effort by Epstein to exploit underage girls. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein’s alleged crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago.
The messages are part of a batch of 23,000 documents provided by Epstein’s estate to the Oversight Committee. The release resurfaces a storyline that had shadowed Trump’s presidency during the summer when the FBI and the Justice Department abruptly announced that they would not be releasing additional documentsthat investigators had spent weeks examining, disappointing conspiracy theorists and online sleuths who had expected to see new revelations.
The longest government shutdown in history could conclude as soon as today, Day 43, with Speaker Mike Johnson calling House representatives back into session after sending them home for nearly eight weeks.
The House is scheduled to take up a bill to reopen the government that the Senate passed on Monday night. President Donald Trump called the measure a “very big victory,” and it’s expected to pass the Republican-led chamber. But the prospect of travel delays due to the shutdown could complicate the vote. Johnson may need nearly perfect attendance from fellow Republicans to get the measure over the finish line.
Almost no one will be satisfied. Democrats didn’t get the health insurance provisions they demanded added to the spending deal. And both polls and election results show that Republicans, who control the levers of power in Washington, didn’t escape blame.
The president of Israel on Wednesday condemned what he called a “shocking and serious” attack by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, calling for an end to a growing wave of settler violence in the occupied territory.
President Isaac Herzog’s comments added a rare and powerful voice to what has been muted criticism by top Israeli officials of the settler violence. Herzog’s position, while largely ceremonial, is meant to serve as a moral compass and unifying force for the country.
Herzog said the violence committed by a “handful” of perpetrators “crosses a red line,” adding in a social media post that “all state authorities must act decisively to eradicate the phenomenon.”
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.
