In newly released communications obtained by the Democratic majority on the House Oversight Committee, convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote a cryptic email to his then-associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 2011 e-mail referred to Donald Trump as ‘that dog that hasn’t barked’ and claimed that one of Epstein’s most well-known alleged victims spent hours in his house with Trump.

Notably, the leakers of the email redacted the name of the alleged victim. Why? Because she contradicts the narrative in the email.

Later, in 2019 another email exposes a conversation in which Epstein claims Trump asked Maxwell to stop recruiting young women from the spa at the Palm Beach resort Mar‑a‑Lago. Trump “knew about the girls” wrote Epstein, but the meaning is not what the media and critics will make it out to be.

The White House says the emails out of context are part of a manufactured smear campaign.

The chain of events goes like this: On January 31, 2019—less than six months before Epstein’s arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges—he sent an email to author Michael Wolff in which he responded to Trump’s portrayal of having expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago:

“Trump said he asked me to resign. [I was] never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked [G]hislaine to stop.”

Going further back, on April 2, 2011, Epstein emailed Maxwell, referring cryptically to Trump as: “that dog that hasn’t barked … [redacted victim] spent hours at my house with him … he has never once been mentioned.”

Though the name of the victim remains redacted in the released documents, Republicans on the Oversight Committee have identified her as Virginia Giuffre, who before her death asserted that Trump never abused her.

Trump’s office swiftly pushed back. A statement from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of “selectively leaking emails … to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.” She underscored that Giuffre had publicly stated that Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier” to her in their limited interactions—and reminded that Trump claims he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago decades ago “for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre.”

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre. These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”

“Why did Democrats cover up the name when the [Epstein] Estate didn’t redact it in the redacted documents provided to the committee?” the Oversight Committee’s Republicans asked on X in response to the release. “It’s because this victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump.

“Democrats are trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump. Shame on them.”

Trump himself has maintained that ongoing interest in the Epstein tragedy is politically motivated. He touted that in July 2025, he had told reporters aboard Air Force One that Epstein “stole people that worked for me” from his spa:

“I have a great spa … at Mar-a-Lago. And people were taken out of the spa, hired by him … When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people…’ And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”

When pressed if Giuffre was among those employees, Trump responded: “I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people. Yeah, he stole her.”

Given the partisan pressures, the GOP on the Oversight Committee challenged the Democrats’ timing and motives: “Why did Democrats cover up the name when the [Epstein] Estate didn’t redact it … ?” they asked.