President Donald Trump denied being "friendly" with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a Truth Social post Monday, claiming newly released Department of Justice (DOJ) information reveals Epstein and author Michael Wolff "conspired" to damage him and his presidency.
Trump also said he never visited Epstein's private island while alleging "almost all" Democrats and their donors did, and threatened legal action against unspecified members of "the Radical Left."
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Wolff and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via email on Monday for comment.
Who Is Michael Wolff?
Wolff, an author and journalist, has written four books about Trump’s rise in American politics.
In 2018, he released Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, a bestseller that detailed a disorganized, tumultuous administration and criticism of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Past Epstein Emails Mention Trump
Epstein mentioned Trump multiple times in private messages to Maxwell and Wolff between 2011 and 2019, according to emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee last year.
In 2011, Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later convicted of sex trafficking: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”
“[A victim] spent hours at my house with him,” Epstein wrote Maxwell in April 2011. “He has never once been mentioned.”
“I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell replied.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Democrats on the House Oversight Committee for releasing the messages, characterizing them as “selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” CNN reported in November.
“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,” Leavitt said.
The Daily Beast has also obtained Wolff’s recordings of Epstein, which Trump’s camp has dismissed as “false smears,” according to the outlet.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has long faced criticism for the slow and incomplete release of files relating to Epstein, despite pressure from Republicans within the MAGA movement, sparking calls for investigations and potential penalties against the DOJ and its leadership.
Some of that criticism has focused on allegations that the DOJ sought to protect, or at least redact, all references to Trump.
The denial comes days after the DOJ released over 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein investigations, including multiple references to Trump that the department described as potentially containing "untrue and sensationalist claims."
What To Know
On Friday, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche stressed that the department "did not protect President Trump" while releasing the roughly 3 million files.
The disclosure came as a result of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which Trump signed into law with an initial December 19 deadline that the DOJ missed. Tens of thousands of documents were released before Christmas, including photos, interview transcripts, and court records, many of which were heavily redacted, prompting concerns about withheld references to Trump.
In his Monday Truth Social post, Trump wrote: "Not only wasn't I friendly with Jeffrey Epstein but, based upon information that has just been released by the Department of Justice, Epstein and a SLEAZEBAG lying 'author' named Michael Wolff, conspired in order to damage me and/or my Presidency. So much for the Radical Left's hope against hope, some of whom I'll be suing. Additionally, unlike so many people that like to 'talk' trash, I never went to the infested Epstein island but, almost all of these Crooked Democrats, and their Donors, did."
The president did not provide evidence to support his claim that Democrats and their donors visited Epstein's private island.
Neither Trump nor former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who also appeared in the records, has been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and both have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was abusing underage girls. Previously released flight logs showed Trump flew on Epstein's private jet in the 1990s.
Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, commented in a recent Vanity Fair interview that "there is no evidence" Clinton made repeated trips to Epstein's private island, countering earlier claims made by Trump on social media. She also said Trump "is in the file" but that "he's not in the file doing anything awful."
What People Are Saying
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday: "My team has certain communications with the White House. Let me just be clear—they had nothing to do with this review, they had no oversight of this review, they did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what to not redact…there's no oversight by the White House into the process we've undertaken over the past 60 days."
The White House referred Newsweek to the DOJ press release, which in part read: "This production may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos, as everything that was sent to the FBI by the public was included in the production that is responsive to the Act. Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they have a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already."
Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Angel Ureña, issued a statement in December addressing the former president’s appearance in the files: "The White House has not been hiding these files for months, only to dump them late on a Friday afternoon to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they will try and hide forever.
"So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this is not about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton.
"There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continues relationships with him after. We are in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.
"Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats."
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in December: "By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, and President Trump recently calling for further investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, the Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have." She also said the Trump administration is the "most transparent in history."
What Happens Next
While Blanche said Friday's release would be the last, scrutiny of the millions of documents and Trump's links to Epstein is likely to continue.
Update 2/2/26, 3:27 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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