White House calls Epstein emails release a Democratic smear • FRANCE 24 English

White House calls Epstein emails release a Democratic smear • FRANCE 24 English

there. The new emails raise questions about the extent of the relationship between Trump and Epstein. Epstein, of course, we remind you the late convicted pedophile and sex trafficker. Monty Francis joins us more to talk more about this story and its possible uh effects going forward. Monty, where did these emails come from? Why are they emerging right now? Well, so these emails are part of a trove of documents that were turned over to the House Oversight Committee in connection with Epstein’s 2008 plea deal. Now, Democrats, they sorted through thousands of pages and decided to release three emails. Now, just in the last couple of hours, Republicans on the committee have released 20,000 additional pages. So, we’ll have to see what what comes out of that. But this initial release, three very significant emails. One written by Jeffrey Epste to his co-conspirator Gla Maxwell. The other two were exchanges between Epstein and the author Michael Wolf. We’re looking at one of the most explosive of the three. That’s the email exchange between Epstein and Maxwell. It’s dated April 2nd, 2011. So, this is after Epstein had pleaded guilty to state charges of sex crimes and avoided federal charges. And that was before Trump became president. Here, Epstein says to Maxwell, I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. Victim’s name is redacted here. Spent hours at my house with him and he has never been mentioned. And Maxwell replies, I have been thinking about that. Now, Maxwell’s response here is significant because it seems to contradict her previous statements. Uh, just as a reminder, Maxwell is serving a prison sentence of of 20 years uh in prison for recruiting underage girls into Jeffrey Epstein’s uh sex trafficking ring. Now, back in July, she met with Todd Blanch, who is the Trump administration’s deputy attorney general. And in that meeting, she said that she never saw Trump, quote, in any inappropriate setting, in any way. She also testified that there was nothing from President Trump in uh that book that was created for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Well, that second statement appears to be false because uh a page of that book was published after she said that showing a full page ostensibly signed by Donald Trump. It includes a drawing of a naked woman figure, a naked woman’s figure, and it says, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.” And it ends with happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret. And it is signed by Donald Trump. I should point out that the White House has claimed that this document is inauthentic. There’s been a lot of reporting on this. The signature appears to belong to Donald Trump. As for that second claim that Maxwell never saw Trump in any inappropriate situation or inappropriate settings, that appears to be contradicted by this email here where she says, “I have been thinking about that.” Now, Democrats have been accusing the Trump administration of a quidd proquo when it comes to Maxwell because after she met with Todd Blanch and said these things in defense of Donald Trump, she was transferred to a minimum security prison. There are allegations uh by Democrats that she’s receiving favorable treatment that’s not afforded to other inmates at that facility. Democrats say that Maxwell is planning to formally ask President Trump to commute her sentence. And when asked about this, Donald Trump would not rule out that possibility. Now, what about these other two uh emails which also mentioned Donald Trump in connection with Epstein? Yeah. So, these this involves a writer by the name of Michael Wolf. He’s written many political books, including four about Donald Trump. Uh Wolf interviewed Jeffrey Epstein on many occasions. I’d like to focus on on one of these emails. It’s dated January 1st, 2019. And later that year, of course, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell. And this message to Wolf Epste says of Trump, “Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Elaine to stop.” Now, this one’s a bit difficult to decode because part of it’s redacted, but the important part is the claim by Epstein that Trump knew about quote the girls. The victim’s names have been redacted from these messages. We know one of the victims uh who sadly died by suicide and postumously published a memoir about her experiences, Virginia. She worked at Mara Lago uh Donald Trump’s Florida resort and Trump accused Epstein of poaching young women from Mara Lago. And Trump’s words, Epstein stole young women who worked at Mara Lago. And Trump explained this was part of his falling out with Epstein. Now, before her death earlier this year, Juay had long insisted that Trump was not among the men who had victimized her. However, Juy, of course, alleged to have been trafficked to the former Prince Andrew, who has since lost his title over this uh Epstein scandal. Monty, how is Donald Trump responding to it all? It’s not going to surprise you. Trump has long said these repeated questions about his connection to Epste were a hoax carried out by Democrats. he took to social media not long ago and he said, quote, “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the shutdown and so many other subjects. Only a very bad or stupid Republican would fall into that tramp.” Uh, by his account, Trump and Epstein were friendly, but had a falling out in the early 2000s. He has called Epstein a creep and Trump has denied he ever engaged in anything any wrongdoing with Epstein or Galain Maxwell. So I suspect we have it at the end of this Epstein scandal. Uh in many ways another chapter beginning. I think you could you could be right on that. Yes, I mentioned Republicans have just released 23,000 pages of additional uh documents. I don’t see any big bombshells to come out of that, but we’re still sorting through it. Um but the sh the shutdown is over. The House is back in session. Many people expect a vote to come up in the House to release all of the Epstein files. The White House is already trying to keep such a vote from happening, but it’s fair to say this story is far from over. Mark Monty Francis there with that uh analysis very forensic of the Epstein Trump story in the light of these fresh emails that have been released. Monty, thank you very much indeed.

Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to a journalist that Donald Trump “knew about the girls,” according to documents made public Wednesday, but what he knew — and whether it pertained to the sex offender’s crimes — is unclear. The White House quickly accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the president. FRANCE 24’s Monte Francis has more.
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