Washington — President Donald Trump is once again at the center of a storm he’s tried for years to escape. Newly revealed emails from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, released by congressional committees on Wednesday, have reignited controversy over Trump’s past association with the late financier — and raised fresh political and ethical questions for the White House.
The emails, some of which mention Trump directly, were made public by both Democratic and Republican members of the House Oversight Committee. While none of the documents appear to implicate Trump in criminal wrongdoing, their content has nonetheless intensified speculation about his long-acknowledged relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking minors.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the disclosures, saying they proved “absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.” But political fallout was immediate. The emails included Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell discussing Trump, with one 2011 message from Epstein referring cryptically to Trump as “the dog that hasn’t barked.”
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, told Justice Department officials earlier this year that she had never seen Trump behave inappropriately, calling him “a gentleman in all respects.” Nonetheless, other exchanges proved politically embarrassing. In 2018, Epstein referred to Trump as “borderline insane” in a message to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and wrote to a former Obama aide that he “knew how dirty Donald is.”
The renewed focus on Epstein has plunged the administration into another self-inflicted crisis. After pledging transparency, Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi backtracked on promises to release the full cache of Epstein-related files — a reversal that critics have labeled a “cover-up.” Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw told CNN, “If there’s nothing to hide, why not release the full record and move on?”
The controversy escalated further when CNN reported that senior White House officials — including Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — met with Rep. Lauren Boebert in the Situation Room, a setting usually reserved for national security briefings. The unusual meeting fueled suspicions that the administration was attempting to pressure Boebert into withdrawing support for a petition demanding the release of the Epstein files.
Meanwhile, fractures within the GOP are beginning to show. Rep. Nancy Mace reaffirmed her support for disclosing all documents, telling CNN she “will never turn [her] back on other survivors.” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie also confirmed that several of his colleagues plan to vote in favor of releasing the files, despite White House objections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that a vote will take place next week on a resolution requiring the Justice Department to disclose the Epstein materials — a move seen as a test of Trump’s influence within his own party.
The episode adds to Trump’s growing list of political challenges. With his approval ratings slipping amid economic unease and congressional infighting, the Epstein controversy threatens to further erode his credibility and distract from his policy agenda.
For years, Trump has sought to distance himself from Epstein, calling him “a creep” and insisting their relationship ended long before the financier’s arrest. Yet each new revelation seems to pull him back into the scandal’s orbit — and this latest trove of documents has made it increasingly difficult for him to escape.
As one Republican lawmaker put it bluntly, echoing Epstein’s own haunting words: “The dog that hasn’t barked — is barking now.”
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