This is an adapted excerpt from the Nov. 12 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
The way Donald Trump and his administration have handled the case against Jeffrey Epstein appears to be shaping up as the greatest political scandal of our lifetime. And the reason I know that is because of the relentless pressure campaign the White House has waged to stop more information about that case from coming out.
The Trump administration wasn’t able to persuade any of the Republicans to defect before Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in.
Now, let’s remember, this is the president who regularly admits he “knows nothing about” whatever issue is embroiling his administration. It’s also the same president who spent the last few weeks refusing to lift a finger in the negotiations to end the government shutdown.
But when it comes to the release of the Epstein files, it appears to be all hands on deck over at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
According to multiple outlets, on Wednesday the White House carried out a last-ditch pressure campaign against Republican members of Congress who had signed on to the effort to release the Epstein files.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel even held a meeting in the Situation Room with Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert — one of the Republicans who has supported releasing the files. Meetings with members of Congress about anything but classified national security information are rarely, if ever, held in the Situation Room, but the dramatic backdrop here was maybe their point.
In the end, the effort to frame voting for the discharge petition as some sort of national security issue didn’t succeed. The Trump administration wasn’t able to persuade any of the Republicans to defect before Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in.
Moments after her swearing-in, Grijalva became the 218th signature on the petition to vote on releasing the Epstein files, meaning the House is now on track to take that up on the floor next week.
Given the effort Trump has already expended to keep these files from getting out and how engaged an otherwise fairly disengaged president seems to be in preventing even the discharge petition from moving forward, it raises the question: What else is in these files?
Trump has repeatedly dismissed reports that he was aware of Epstein’s crimes, telling reporters in 2019 he had “no idea” the financier was abusing young women. Even back then, his denial was pretty hard to believe.
However, new emails released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee now call into question that claim. In a 2019 email, Epstein said of Trump: “Of course he knew about the girls.”
Shortly after Democrats released a select few of those emails, Republicans on the committee dropped an additional trove of more than 20,000 that were obtained from the Epstein estate. While MSNBC has not independently confirmed the authenticity of those emails or the allegations, several of them suggest that Trump may have known a whole lot more than he let on.
For instance, in another email from 2019, Epstein talks about the prior investigation and charges against him, writing that a woman whose name was redacted “worked at Mara Lago. Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period. The testimony of the houseman John Alessi confirmed it. He never got a massage.”
Now, putting aside whether or not the president got a massage himself, the suggestion that Trump “knew of it” certainly raises a whole lot of questions.
Then there’s a 2011 email from Epstein to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, in which Epstein wrote: “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.” “I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell replied. Now, despite it sounding a whole lot like a Sherlock Holmes reference — we don’t know exactly what Trump being the dog that hasn’t barked means — it also refers to a victim spending hours at Epstein’s house with Trump. That alone is huge news. There’s also an email suggesting that Epstein may have still been in contact with the president even after Trump was elected in 2016. As are numerous other emails giving us new insight into Epstein’s thinking about Trump. There’s a 2018 conversation about the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf, in which Epstein wrote, “I know how dirty donald is.” One email included a meme shared with Epstein by his brother in 2016, with the caption “Would you trust this man with your daughter?” There’s also an email suggesting that Epstein may have still been in contact with the president even after Trump was elected in 2016. Just a week after that election, Epstein indicated in one email that he was at Trump Tower in New York City. Then there are some exchanges that, in a trove of creepy emails, stand out as being particularly gross. In a 2015 email, Epstein referred to “my 20 year old girlfriend in 93 ,, that after two years I gave to donald.” In that same exchange, he also wrote: “would you like to see photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.” Now, I should be clear: This is a huge trove of emails, and, understandably, some are vague, some are kind of cryptic, and many are lacking full context and details. So it will take time for committee members and journalists to sort through them and make complete sense of it all. Of course, Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes. But it has never been clearer than it is right now why the president may not want these files to be released.
Jen Psaki is the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" airing Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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