Read Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released emails about Trump

Late-convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein specifically referred to his relationship with President Donald Trump in writing before Trump was elected to office and in the lead-up to the 2020 election, according to newly obtained emails released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

The emails, some of which were shared directly with PBS News, are among 23,000 documents turned over to the committee, ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., wrote in a press release. These include correspondence between Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her involvement in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

Below are the first three emails released by the committee. See emails at this link.

Read the committee’s full emails by clicking on the document below.

In one 2011 email about Trump, Epstein wrote: “I want you to realize that this dog that did not bark is Trump. [sic]. [Victim] I spent hours at home with him,, [sic] It’s not mentioned once.

“I’ve been thinking about that…” Maxwell replied.

In another email to author Michael Wolff dated January 31, 2019, Epstein mentioned the president’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, and said: “Trump said he asked me to resign, and I was never a member. Of course he knew about the girls when he asked Ghislaine.” [sic] “to stop.”

He watches: Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir exposes abuse by powerful men

In another conversation on December 15, 2015, Wolf allegedly sent an email to Epstein telling him that he had heard that CNN planned to ask Trump about their relationship. CNN hosted the fifth Republican primary debate of the 2016 election cycle on December 15, 2015. Epstein asked: “If we could formulate an answer to him, what do you think it should be?” Wolff offered, in part, that “if he says he wasn’t on the plane or home, that gives you valuable public relations and political currency. You can hang him in a way that is likely to generate a positive benefit for you, or if it looks like he can really win, you can bail him out, generating a debt.” Trump was not asked about Epstein during the debate, according to a PBS News review of transcripts and video.

When White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt was asked by PBS News about these exchanges, she said: “Democrats have selectively leaked emails to liberal media outlets to create a false narrative to discredit President Trump.”

“The ‘unnamed victim’ referred to in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who has repeatedly said that President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing at all,” she claimed.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago because he was intimidating his female employees, including Giuffre,” Levitt added. He added: “These stories are nothing more than bad faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense correctly sees this as a hoax and a clear distraction from opening up government again.”

Maxwell and Wolff’s legal team have not yet responded to a request for comment about these exchanges.

Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case, but their relationship has come under renewed scrutiny. The details of the break-up of their friendship are vague. Trump claims he stopped talking to Epstein because he “stole” workers from Mar-a-Lago spa.

Read more: House Democrats released partial Epstein records referring to Musk, Gates and Prince Andrew

During the election campaign, Trump said he supported the release of more government files related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in prison. However, since returning to office, Trump has called the push for more transparency a “hoax,” and has sued The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on an obscene birthday drawing he allegedly made of Epstein.

Calls for the release of more information have intensified among members of Congress, Epstein survivors and the public. Under a new Republican majority, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department and several high-ranking officials this summer, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former FBI Director James Comey, as part of its own investigation into how the government handled the case. The committee released more than 33,000 pages of documents related to the case, as well as a redacted electronic version of Epstein’s birthday book, which appears to include letters purportedly from Trump and Bill Clinton, among others.

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we will discover,” Garcia wrote in Wednesday’s press release. “These recent emails and correspondence raise stark questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president.” “The Department of Justice must release the entire Epstein files to the public immediately. The Oversight Committee will continue to press for answers and will not stop until we get justice for the victims.”

Read more: Who else appears in Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book?

Earlier this week, a whistleblower shared information with the House Judiciary Committee that Maxwell was receiving special treatment at the prison she was transferred to several months ago in Texas. Last month, Wolff filed a lawsuit against First Lady Melania Trump, alleging that she threatened him with a lawsuit to silence him from writing about her ties to Epstein.

More than three-quarters of Americans believe the Trump administration should release all of the Epstein files, redacting the names of the victims, according to a late September poll conducted by PBS News, NPR and Marist.