New Epstein emails claim Donald Trump ‘knew about the girls’ • FRANCE 24 English

New Epstein emails claim Donald Trump ‘knew about the girls’ • FRANCE 24 English

In the United States, Democrats have released a batch of emails in which Jeffrey Epstein suggests that Donald Trump might have known about the sex offenders crimes. The US president has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking activities, but Democrats say the emails raise serious questions about how much Trump knew. Andrew Hillier and James Vina have more on that story. a damning new batch of emails which threatened to raise questions about US President Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and whether or not he knew about the sex offenders crimes. The three emails were released by US Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. In one exchange between Epstein and his former girlfriend Gileain Maxwell, Epstein alleges an unnamed victim spent hours at his house with Trump. And in another exchange, this time between Epstein and author Michael Wolf, Epstein says, “Of course Trump knew about the girls as he asked Gileain to stop.” Donald Trump has consistently denied that he had any knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking activities. The White House responded by accusing Democrats of smearing President Trump, but the emails could heap pressure on the White House to publish the files. Democrats in the House are now a step closer to forcing the publication. I wasn’t a big fan of Jeffrey Epste. with the swearing in of a Democrat as representative for Arizona’s seventh congressional district, which had been delayed since she was elected seven weeks ago. She has now signed the petition, giving it the needed 218 signatures that could eventually lead to the release of the so-called Epstein case files. Well, I’m joined now in the studio by international affairs editor Andrew Hillier. for more on this. Hi, Andrew. Uh, so what do these latest documents reveal about Epstein’s relationship with Trump? What’s new? Well, uh, Angela, these documents, just for a start, they were released in two batches. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three email exchanges between Jeffrey Epste, Gileain Maxwell, and author Michael Wolf. This again raising questions about the relationship that Donald Trump had with Jeffrey Epste. Just a quick reminder, the two men were friends uh uh throughout the 80s and 90s before Trump says he they they fell out in the early 2000s, just a couple years before Epstein was arrested. Now, I’m just going to bring up an example of one of those email exchanges in which Epstein and his former girlfriend Gileain Maxwell. Uh in this email, Epstein alleges that an unnamed victim spent hours at his house with Donald Trump. That’s one email. Uh in another email exchange, this time between Epstein and author Michael Wolf, uh Epstein alleges that uh quote, “Of course uh Donald Trump knew about the girls as he asked Gilain to stop.” Now, Republicans later on Wednesday counted with countered this with the release of some 20,000 documents. These all date from 2011 uh when Epstein was actually trying to rehabilitate his image all the way up to 2019 when Trump was serving as president uh during his first term. Now, many are benal. Uh some just show Epstein’s staff uh questioning, for example, whether the arrival of Trump’s private jet would impede Epstein’s own travel. But what they do show is that Epstein appeared to keep a keep a close eye on his former friend’s whereabouts uh and movements for years. There’s a gossipy tone. There are insults. and he kind of appears to cast himself as this Trump insider who can potentially leverage uh damaging information about the president and his business dealings. So, it really looks like he was trying to exploit the remnants of their former uh friendship. Some emails suggesting that Epstein thought that Trump knew more about Epstein’s personal conduct than he was letting on. Now, very important to point out, they do not include any messages from Trump or anyone perverting to speak on his behalf. No smoking gun here. So, and and and of course, Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Now, we were listening in that report and it was mentioned this new Democrat representative in the House who was sworn in yesterday. And that uh means the stage is now set for a vote which Trump is quite worried about, isn’t he? Yes, indeed. That’s because, Angela, after a 50-day wait on Wednesday, Democrat Adelita Guzalva was finally sworn in as the representative of an Arizona congressional district. Now, why is that important? Well, because she, after her swearing in, added her signature, the key decisive 218th signature to the discharge position. Here she is to the discharge position which should force a vote on releasing those uh Epstein files. Now just to go over what is a discharge position. This is a rarely used mechanism to sidestep majority party leadership in the US House. And what it will do is it will now trigger a countdown for for the bill on a vote to hit the House floor. And that could happen as early as the first week of December. Now, that would still require Senate approval if it passes the House and then it would need to be signed by Donald Trump in Donald Trump himself. Those two things are very unlikely. But the key point here, Angela, is the contentious battle that this is setting up in the House because even a vote in the House could be a political disaster for Donald Trump. Um because there’s a huge dilemma here for House Republicans who uh on, you know, on the one hand their base wants these files released. Uh on the other hand, that would defy Trump and the Republican leadership. So you have Republican lawmakers torn between loyalty to their constituents and to Donald Trump. This is a rare example of that. Um now, Trump officials had convinced several Republicans to remove their name from that petition uh over the last few weeks. Four Republicans, however, have signed it. That’s Thomas Massie, one of the leaders of the petition, and three Republican women who have bucked the party leadership. Who are those people? That’s Lauren Bowbert. That’s Nancy Mace and Marjgerie Taylor Green. There are reports the Trump White House has this week uh ramped up pressure on at least two of those women. Lauren Bert was actually even reportedly convened to the White House situation room for a meeting. Trump also reportedly reaching out by phone to Lauren Bert and to Nancy Mace. Both women however uh leaving their names on the petition and with that crucial 200 218th uh signature uh that freezes the petition meaning that lawmakers can no longer remove their name and it does also set off that uh the clock that I told you about meaning that the house that the the bill should come to the floor of the house for a vote and we will no doubt be covering that uh when it happens. Thanks very much Andrew. Andrew Helier there our international affairs editor.

Jeffrey Epstein suggested Donald Trump knew about the disgraced financier’s abuse and “spent hours” with one of the victims at his house, according to emails released by Democrats Wednesday that raised awkward new questions for the US president. Details and analysis by FRANCE 24 journalist Andrew Hilliar.
#Epstein #Trump #email

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