Disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s web of high-profile connections grows ever more complex with the release of thousands of new emails and correspondences by the US House Oversight Committee.US President Donald Trump again labelled the “Epstein file” a “hoax” after Democrats on the committee leaked three emails that mentioned Trump, including Epstein saying Trump “knew about the girls” Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was recruiting from Mar-a-Lago.
But more revelations are emerging from among the 20,000-plus trove of documents that followed those initial three emails – and they aren’t all about Trump.
The emails below have been left in their original text and contain some spelling and grammatical errors.
An email from Jeffrey Epstein mentioning Donald Trump. (CNN)Jeffrey Epstein. (AP)
In other emails, Epstein strategised how to respond to accuser Virginia Giuffre’s allegations, which included an account of meeting former president Bill Clinton on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean.
“Presidents at dinner on caribean islands. ( clinton was never ever there, easy to confirm ). Sharing a bath with a Prince ( bathtub too small even for one adult ). sex slave being paid thousands of dollars. ( while at the exact same time, she was working as a hostess in a burger bar ).”
Clinton has acknowledged travelling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Clinton has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them, including Giuffre.
Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton. (Netflix)
In a 2016 email to a reporter, Epstein denied ever spending time with Clinton or his vice president Al Gore on his island.
“You can also add, fresh politcal juice by stating that Clinton was never on the island,” Epstein wrote.
“I never met Al Gore. No diners on the island either, no matter how much detail has been in the press.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
The new emails undercut the former Prince Andrew’s claim that a now-infamous snapshot of him with his arm around Giuffre’s partly bare midriff was doctored because he couldn’t remember it being taken.
“Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have,” Epstein wrote in one 2011 email in which he called Giuffre a liar.
Epstein repeatedly disparaged Giuffre, calling her “nothing more than a telephone answerer”.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has disputed that this image is genuine. (Nine)
He discussed getting a reporter to investigate her, suggesting “Buckingham Palace would love it”.
When the Mail on Sunday sought comment before publishing a story in March 2011 about Giuffre’s allegations, Epstein forwarded the email to a contact listed as “The Duke” that is partly redacted but appears to be Mountbatten-Windsor.
“Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations,” the reply from the email listed as “The Duke” said.
“I can’t take any more of this (on) my end.”
When he asked Epstein how he planned to respond to the tabloid’s request, Epstein said he wasn’t sure.
“The only person she didn’t have sex with was Elvis,” he wrote.
In January 2015, an anonymous woman – later revealed to be Giuffre – filed a lawsuit alleging that Epstein and Maxwell groomed and sexually abused her between 1998 and 2002.
The lawsuit alleged they forced her to become a “sex slave” to powerful men – including a royal prince later revealed to be Mountbatten-Windsor.
Mountbatten-Windsor has denied the allegation and later settled a lawsuit Giuffre filed against him.
In several email exchanges on January 10, 2015, after the lawsuit was filed, Epstein and Maxwell coordinated their public response to the allegations.
Epstein and Maxwell in communication. (CNN)
“Initial response, too many unanswered question raised, relationship with jeffrey/…I am writing to writin to respond to alleagtinoin that have been made wchich are categorically untrue,” Epstein wrote to Maxwell.
Maxwell responded by asking if her lawyer could speak with a lawyer, then wrote: “I have to distance myself from you in statement too. And they need me to say I was not aware of massage w/ andrew in my house. These things they have to stay along w/ meeting [REDACTED] and rebutting those allegations. I needs it asap.”
Maxwell with Epstein. (AP)
After Epstein assured Maxwell he was on the phone with his lawyer about getting her a lawyer, she replied, “I need it written out in full.”
“Call me,” Epstein replied.
Maxwell later settled a defamation lawsuit with Giuffre in June 2017 for an undisclosed sum.
In an interview with the Justice Department this summer, Maxwell said her relationship with Epstein was “almost nonexistent” between 2010 and 2019 outside of corresponding over legal matters.
The emails show an interesting exchange between Jeffrey Epstein and Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of controversial filmmaker Woody Allen.
Epstein sent an article to Previn, titled, “Bill Clinton’s CIA chief joins Trump campaign.”
The article, published by The Hill in September 2016, was about the former Clinton-appointed CIA director James Woolsey joining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.An email exchange with Soon-Yi Previn. (CNN)
“Woody said it doesn’t mean anything,” Previn wrote in response to Epstein.
It’s unclear why Epstein flagged the news to Previn and what, if any, interest she or her husband would have had in Woolsey’s involvement with Trump.
So far, no correspondence between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has emerged, nor has Trump been accused of any wrongdoing in the documents released.
But Epstein had plenty to say about his one-time friend.
He called Trump “borderline insane” in a 2018 email exchange with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
Epstein called Trump “borderline insane”. (CNN)
“Trump – borderline insane,” Epstein wrote on December 22, 2018.
It’s unclear what prompted the exchange between Epstein and Summers.
A week after Trump was inaugurated to his first term as US president, he signed an executive order banning the entry of foreign nationals from Muslim majority countries for 90 days, widely referred to as the “Muslim ban”.
Epstein said in an email to a New York Times reporter on January 28, 2017: “IT helps as he is seen as keeping his word.”
He added later in the email: “That being said Donald is f—— crazy, I told you that.”
Epstein said he knew how “dirty” Trump was. (CNN)In a March 24, 2018, email chain with Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, Epstein shared a Daily Beast article titled, “How Close Is Donald Trump to a Psychiatric Breakdown?”
The exchange shows Epstein forwarding the story early that morning to Ruemmler, with her replying: “Not confidence inspiring.”
Epstein then responded: “but – accurate.”
A year earlier in July 2017, Ruemmler wrote an email to Epstein saying, “Trump is truly stupid.”
Donald Trump’s long relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is under increasing scrutiny. (AP)
“Duh,” Epstein replied several hours later.
It is not clear why Ruemmler and Epstein were corresponding at the time.
In December 2018, Epstein emailed Ruemmler about Trump’s behaviour, writing:
“you might want to tell your dem friends that treating trump like a mafia don, ignores the fact that he has great dangerous power. tightening the noose too slowly, risks a very bad situation. gambino was never the commander in chief. there was little gambino could do as the walls closed in. not so with this maniac.”
In 2018, Epstein also questioned in an email with a reporter whether Trump was suffering from “early dementia”.
In early June 2019, Trump made a state visit to the United Kingdom, where he was welcomed by the former Prince Andrew.
A photo shows Andrew grinning as he shakes Trump’s hand.
In a June 2019 email exchange with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, Epstein wrote, “prince andrew and trump today.. Tooo [sic] funny.” And then he added, “recall prince andrews accuser came out of mara lago [sic].”
Bannon replied, “Can’t believe nobody is making u [sic] the connective tissue.”
Steve Bannon was President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist. (AP)
It’s unclear what exactly Bannon meant by the message.
Trump fired him from the White House in 2017, though Bannon remained influential in conservative politics, as he does today.
Trump and Andrew socialised together in the 1990s and 2000s, per newspaper reports, alongside Epstein and Maxwell, sometimes at Mar-A-Lago.
CNN reached out to Bannon for comment but did not immediately hear back.
The new cache of documents from the House committee also seem to shed further light on the extent of the contact between Epstein and Peter Mandelson, who was recently fired as British ambassador to the US over his ties to Epstein.
Emails show that the pair were in contact as late as 2016 when Mandelson appeared to reference Epstein’s birthday two weeks earlier.
“63 years old. You made it,” he wrote.
Their exchange also appears to suggest that Mandelson had cautioned Epstein to avoid Mountbatten-Windsor, with the disgraced financier writing that “you were right about staying away from Andrew”.
Peter Mandelson featured in Epstein’s so-called 50th “birthday book,” collated by then-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. (CNN)
Mandelson responds, “Yes, without Andrew it would not have gone nuclear.”
It’s unclear exactly what the two men are referring to.
CNN has attempted to reach out to Mandelson for comment.
Mandelson was fired as Britain’s ambassador to the US in September after Bloomberg published a trove of emails between him and Epstein which revealed the depth of their friendship.
Those emails had shown that Mandelson had sent Epstein messages of support until 2010 – even after the sex offender was convicted of soliciting prostitution with a minor in Florida two years prior.
– Reported with CNN and Associated Press.
