Who released the email exchanges?

Three email exchanges were released by Democrats on the Oversight Committee in the US House of Representatives today.

They say they were provided by Jeffrey Epstein's estate this morning.

What do the emails say?

The documents appear to show Epstein mentioning US President Donald Trump several times in correspondence with long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and in separate correspondence with writer Michael Wolff.

An email from Epstein to Maxwell in April 2011 alleges Trump "spent hours" with one of the victims, calling the US president the "dog that hasn't barked".

In a January 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein alleged Trump "knew about the girls because he asked Ghislaine to stop".

What has Trump said?

The US president hasn't commented on these newly released emails, but has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. Trump has previously said allegations against him are a "hoax" orchestrated by the Democratic party.

The pair had been friendly for years, but Trump says they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested.

An exchange in the newly released emails by House Democrats are alleged correspondence between Epstein and the author Michael Wolff, who has written four books on Donald Trump and interviewed Epstein.

"I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards," Wolff allegedly says in an email to Epstein dated 15 December 2015, six months after Trump had declared he was running for the 2016 US presidential election.

Epstein replied to Wolff: "If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?"

"I think you should let him hang himself," Wolff wrote the following day. "If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime."

At the time, Epstein had already pleaded guilty to sex offences in Florida as part of a deal with prosecutors.

In an email from 31 January 2019, Epstein denies the US president's claims that he had banished him from Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate.

"Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever," Epstein told Wolff. "Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop," he added, an apparent reference to Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20 year sentence for trafficking girls to Epstein.

Trump said earlier this year that he fell out with Epstein after he "stole" young women who worked at his Mar-a-Lago beach club spa.

Image source, Getty Images

In July of this year, Ghislaine Maxwell was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

During which, Maxwell - jailed associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - said that she did not witness any inappropriate conduct by Donald Trump or former President Bill Clinton, who has also been mentioned in documents as a former associate of Epstein, but there is no suggestion of any criminality.

The Trump administration has faced pressure to disclose information about Epstein, who the US president had been friendly with, though Trump has said he ended his relationship with Epstein before he was first arrested in 2006.

Maxwell, according to the newly released transcript, told Blanche that a much-discussed "client list" does not exist.

The interview outraged the family of Virginia Giuffre - a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide earlier this year - who say the government has given Maxwell "a platform to rewrite history".

Maxwell is seeking a pardon from Trump and has been accused of lying to federal officials.

Shortly after the interview with Blanche - who previously worked as Trump's personal attorney - she was moved from a Florida prison to a new minimum-security facility in Texas. It is unclear why the move was made.

One of the email exchanges released today by House Democrats concerns direct correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

An email from Epstein to Maxwell in April 2011 reads: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75 % there."

Maxwell replies: "I have been thinking about that…”

Image source, Reuters

Adelita Grijalva, the US representative-elect for Arizona's 7th congressional district, is set to be sworn in as a member of Congress today.

Despite winning the election seven weeks ago, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has ignored demands from Democrats to swear in Grijalva, including during the US government shutdown.

Grijalva had pledged on the campaign trail to support a bipartisan petition which would force a vote on the release of the Epstein files - she will be the decisive 218th vote on this petition.

According to our US partner CBS News, Johnson has given multiple reasons for the delay in Grijalva - citing scheduling issues, the House not being in session, and that he was "following precedent".

Past reports have suggested that Donald Trump himself was told in May by his attorney general that his name appeared in files related to the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

Being named is not evidence of any criminal activity, and Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.

The pair were friendly for years, but the president says he fell out with him in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been "a fan of his".

The White House has previously suggested that their fallout was connected to Epstein's behaviour, and that "the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep".

And Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, saying allegations against him are a "hoax" orchestrated by the Democratic Party.

In their statement, US House Democrats explain the emails they released today.

They say that one shows private correspondence between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein from 2011, in which Epstein appears to say that Trump "spent hours at my house" with a victim of sex trafficking, referring to Trump as "dog that hasn't barked."

In another email exchange between Epstein and author Michael Wolff in 2019, House Democrats say Epstein stated that Trump "knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

Other emails between Wolff and Epstein show the two discussing if they can "craft an answer" for an upcoming Trump CNN interview, "with Wolff characterising Epstein's leverage over Trump," the Democrats say.

House Democrats add they are still reviewing 23,000 documents released by the The Epstein Estate.

Trump was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, and he has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.

Image source, /CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

We can now bring you more from US Congressman Robert Garcia, the leading Democrat on the US House Oversight Committee investigating the Epstein saga:

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new emails they say were provided by the Jeffrey Epstein estate this morning.

The documents, posted to X, appear to show Epstein mentioning Trump several times in correspondence with longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and the writer Michael Wolff.

As the US House of Representatives returns after weeks away, the documents are almost certain to reignite the heated debate around releasing the so-called Epstein Files, the tranches of government documents relating to the late financier.

"The Epstein Estate released a total of 23,000 documents that the Oversight Committee is currently reviewing," House Democrats said in a statement.

Trump has strongly denied knowing about Epstein's illegal activities. The two knew each other in the 1990s and 2000s but had a falling out around 2004.

The New York Times reported in July that US attorney general Pam Bondi had informed Trump his name appeared in the files.

US House Democrats have released new Epstein emails that reference President Donald Trump.

One email is between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Trump has strongly denied knowing about Epstein's illegal activities. The two knew each other in the 1990s and 2000s but had a falling out around 2004.

This is breaking news, more to come.