Wolff: Emails meant to get Epstein to talk about Trump relationship

Columnist and author Michael Wolff said Wednesday he communicated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to talk about his relationship with President Trump, prior to his first White House run in 2016.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democrats released three email exchanges from Epstein with Wolff and Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein. Some emails showed Epstein saying that Trump “knew about the girls.”

“I was trying at that time to get Epstein to talk about his relationship with Trump, and actually, he proved to be an enormously valuable source to me,” Wolff told ABC News about emails with Epstein from 2015. “Part of the context of this is that I was pushing Epstein at that point to go public with what he knew about Trump.”

Wolff said that while he could not remember “the specific emails or the context,” he “was in an in-depth conversation with Epstein at that time about his relationship with Donald Trump. So I think this reflects that.”

One exchange between the two showed Wolff telling Epstein about Trump appearing on CNN in December 2011.

“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote.

After Epstein asked if they could craft an answer for Trump, Wolff said they should let Trump “hang himself.”

“If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency,” he replied to Epstein. “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.”

Another email between the two in January 2019 was focused on if Epstein was banned from membership at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked [Ghislaine Maxwell] to stop.”

The White House slammed the release of the emails and accused Democrats of “selectively” releasing exchanges that referenced Trump. The president warned Republicans against responding to the emails’ release.

“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” Trump continued. “The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price. There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

In a later post, Trump accused Democrats of “using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” to deflect from the government shutdown.

Democrats continued to push on the Epstein issue after Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) was sworn in, becoming the last signature on a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on directing the Department of Justice to release all other information about Epstein. The bill would still have to pass through the Republican-controlled Senate before going to Trump’s desk to be authorized.