Epstein Emailed Trump’s Now Ambassador Asking for Photos of Child

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released private emails implicates Tom Barrack, an old friend of President Trump and the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Barrack sent an email to Epstein on March 9, 2016, saying, “Hope ur good. Let’s catch up.” Epstein’s reply is chilling in hindsight.

“Send photos of you and child.  -- make me smile,” the wealthy financier and child sex offender wrote. If anyone else wrote this email, one could say that this was an innocent request to see pictures of someone’s kids or grandkids. But knowing what we know about Epstein, it possibly takes a sinister connotation that Epstein wanted to see something disgusting and illegal.

The emails released on Wednesday by House Oversight Republicans and Democrats heavily implicate Trump in being closely associated with Epstein even while president, and are also implicating his confidants like Barrack. The president has responded by referring to the whole thing as a hoax, even as his staff and other Republicans have confirmed that the emails are real and identified one of the mentioned victims.

Now that there are 218 members of the House who have signed a discharge petition to make all of the Epstein files public, more damaging information about the president, as well as other powerful Americans, could soon come to light. Trump could be in the politically damaging position of having to veto their disclosure.

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a private email that he “gave” his then 20-year-old girlfriend to President Donald Trump in 1993.

“My 20 year old girlfriend in 93, , that after two years i gave to donald,” Epstein wrote in an email to New York Times finance journalist Landon Thomas, Jr. in 2015. Attached was a link to photos of Norwegian businesswoman and cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, who would have been 20 years old in 1993—insinuating that Epstein (who would have been 40 in 1993) dated her, and then passed her on to Trump.

“Hawaiian tropic girl Lauren Patrella [redacted],” Epstein wrote earlier in the same email chain. “would you like to see photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.”

These are just some of many damning email exchanges that the sex predator had with various rich and powerful people while he was actively trafficking and abusing young women and girls with the help of Ghislaine Maxwell. House Democrats and Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a slew of these messages on Thursday, with more likely to come. Notable messages show Epstein writing that Trump “knew about the girls” and that one of Epstein’s victims “spent hours at my house with [Trump].”

“There’s a total of about 23,000 documents.… We obviously released some today, we’ll be releasing additional documents likely later today,” House Democrat Robert Garcia said Wednesday on MSNBC. “The important thing here is that we know, and we’ve been demanding that Donald Trump and the DOJ release the full Epstein files.”

Trump, of course, has called it all a hoax.

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. 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,” he wrote Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social. “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!”

The White House is frantically trying to do damage control on Donald Trump’s Epstein scandal.

The president’s team rushed reporters out of the Oval Office right as he received one question on the latest trove of files released from the pedophilic sex trafficker’s estate.

The question that closed the press conference was little more than a request for comment: “Mr. President, can you respond to these Epstein emails that were released today?” It’s unclear if the conference had already ended by that point, but Trump’s staffers were quick to usher reporters out rather than let the president respond to one of the biggest stories of the day.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents Wednesday that it had obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Trump and his ascent to the White House.

In a 2011 email, Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite the fact that Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” Epstein wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

When queried by Trump biographer Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of the president’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

The White House immediately brushed off the reports, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting that the emails prove nothing. Trump, in turn, has accused Democrats of inventing the Trump-Epstein connection, repeatedly referring to it as a “hoax.”

Meanwhile, congressional support for the files’ release has continued to grow. At least three more Republicans publicly voiced their support for a bill to make the case files public Wednesday, apparently distressed and disturbed by the president’s affiliation with Epstein.

Some of them were also interested in obtaining new answers from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who remained silent during a Senate hearing last month when asked to confess if she had seen a rumored series of photos in which Trump allegedly had young girls sitting on his lap at one of Epstein’s estates.

Newly released emails suggest that President Donald Trump may have spent his first Thanksgiving in office accompanied by none other than Jeffrey Epstein.

Buried in a batch of thousands of documents released Wednesday by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform, one email chain between Epstein and someone called “Faith Kates,” likely referring to the founder of NEXT Model Management, suggested that the convicted sex offender was still hanging out with Trump long after the president claims he cut ties.

In the emails that took place on the morning of November 23, 2017, Kates asked where Epstein was spending his Thanksgiving, and the convicted sex offender responded: “Eva.”

Kates responded that “Glenn” must be there, indicating that Epstein was with Eva Andersson-Dubin and her husband, Glenn Dubin. In addition to helping to broker the sale of Dubin’s hedge fund to JP Morgan, Epstein had previously dated Andersson-Dubin and was the godfather of the couple’s children.

Kates asked, “who else is down there?”

Epstein replied: “david fizel, hanson, trump.”

“Have fun!!!” Kates replied.

It’s not clear whether Epstein was referring to people that he spent time with during this period, or just who was in Palm Beach for the holiday. Trump spent Thanksgiving day that year at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago, his glitzy Palm Beach club.

That wasn’t the only message that suggested Trump and Epstein were still spending time together. In another email chain from December 2017, a guest of Epstein’s claimed they didn’t want to risk running into Trump at Epstein’s Paris apartment. In other emails sent just days after the presidential election, Epstein claimed he was headed for New York as “Trump gives many new things to do,” and later said he was visiting Trump Tower.

The president has long claimed that his friendship with Epstein ended before his Palm Beach neighbor was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006. But clearly, the two remained linked long afterward.

Now that the House discharge petition has enough signatures to force a vote on the Epstein files, even more Republicans are coming out of the woodwork to support the files’ release.

Just four Republicans initially penned their signatures on the discharge petition. But despite the apparent internal opposition to supporting the petition, several Republicans announced Wednesday that they will vote “yes” on the resulting bill when it comes to the floor.

That includes Representatives Eli Crane and Warren Davidson, reported CNN’s Manu Raju Wednesday afternoon.

Representative Don Bacon also expressed his support for the bill in an interview with MSNBC.

“If it goes on the floor—I get a lot of pushback, ‘Why don’t you put your name on the discharge petition?’ I’m just going to be subtle in my response: Just look at the few Republicans who are on it and who they are,” Bacon told the network.

Early GOP signatories on the petition were Representatives Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“If it comes to the floor, I will vote ‘yes,’” Bacon affirmed.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents Wednesday that it had obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Donald Trump and the pedophilic sex trafficker’s fascination with Trump’s ascent to the White House.

In a 2011 email, Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite the fact that Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” Epstein wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

When queried by Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of Trump’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

The White House immediately brushed off the reports, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting that the emails prove nothing. Trump, in turn, has accused Democrats of inventing the Trump-Epstein connection, repeatedly referring to it as a “hoax.” But House Democrats have roundly rejected that illusion.

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover,” said Robert Garcia, the Oversight ranking member, in a statement. “These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”

Trump was warned as early as May that his name was all over the Epstein files. But concern had swelled among GOP lawmakers since early November that Trump’s relationship with Epstein was even cozier than previously understood—apparently with good reason.

After House Oversight Democrats released a series of private emails from Jeffrey Epstein mentioning Donald Trump, Republicans released their own files, with even more incriminating info.

House Oversight Republicans released 20,000 pages of emails and documents from Epstein’s estate. One of them includes correspondence between Epstein and former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler in 2018. Ruemmler had sent the disgraced pedophile a link to a New York Times op-ed regarding former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to violating finance laws with hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. 

“You see   ,  i know how dirty donald is.    my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea,” Epstein wrote. “what it means to have your fixer  flip.”

The rest of the emails—and their past friendship—would suggest that Epstein did indeed know how “dirty” President Trump is. 

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump [sic]. [Redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, [sic] he has never once been mentioned. police chief etc,” Epstein wrote in 2011 to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, allegedly referring to one of his sex-trafficking victims. 

“I have been thinking about that …” Maxwell responded. 

In another email to author Michael Wolff, Epstein implies that Trump knew Maxwell was trafficking young women who worked at Mar-a-Lago.

“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.  .  of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” he wrote.

Ruemmler also had a very close relationship with Epstein in her own right, meeting with him multiple times after she served as Obama White House counsel. The pedophile also apparently planned for her to join him on his flights to Paris in 2015 and to his private Caribbean island in 2017, although she never visited. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ruemmler said in 2023.

Trump has stuck to his usual script since the emails’ release, calling it “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.” 

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. 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,” he wrote Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social. “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!”

Seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona’s 7th congressional district, Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to the House of Representatives Wednesday, giving legislators the final vote needed to release all of the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein.

House Speaker Mike Johnson set a record for how long he stalled on swearing in Grijalva, using the government shutdown as an excuse. Grijalva won a special election in September to fill the seat of Representative Raúl Grijalva, her father, who passed away in March after 22 years in Congress. She has vowed to be the deciding 218th vote on a petition that would automatically trigger a House floor vote on legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the Epstein files.

After being sworn in, Grijalva received a standing ovation from her colleagues and gave a speech on the House floor, saying she would “sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files” to applause.

“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said.

Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Johnson and the Trump administration of running a “pedophile protection program” by refusing to swear in Grijalva, a term he repeated Tuesday night as he said the GOP is “intentionally hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

“But those days are over, because as soon as Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva becomes Congresswoman Grijalva, her first act ... is going to be to sign that discharge petition,” Jeffries said. “It’s going to force a vote on the House floor, and the American people are going to get the transparency that they deserve.”

This story has been updated.

In a newly released email, a person invited to a private meeting with Jeffrey Epstein joked that Donald Trump might be hanging around the convicted sex offender’s Paris apartment in 2017—years after the president claimed to have cut ties, and after he was already in the White House for the first time. 

Buried in a batch of thousands of documents released by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform Wednesday, one email chain from December 2017 showed someone, whose name was redacted, coordinating a time and place to have a “more private” meeting with Epstein. 

In other documents released by the committee, the names of survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse have been redacted, indicating that the email’s author may have been a victim of the convicted sex criminal. 

When the redacted individual arrived at Epstein’s apartment in Paris on December 8, they remarked that they hoped they weren’t overlapping with a visit from Trump.

“I m at the door but I will wait for my time.. i don’t want to come early to find Trump in your house,” the person wrote, adding two smiley-face emojis.  

Earlier in the email chain, Epstein had invited the person to come to his home. “You are welcome at my house always . And more private.”

The author, whoever they were, wasn’t actually in any danger of running into the president that day. On December 8, Trump was attending a rally in Pensacola, Florida, and the next day he was in Mississippi. While it’s possible that the author was referring to a different “Trump,” such as Eric or Donald Jr., the strange remark appears to refer to Epstein’s well-documented friendship with his neighbor in Palm Beach, or possibly some interaction all three of them had.

There are only two people who know exactly what this comment meant, and one of them is dead. The other, now rendered anonymous, was presumably interviewed by the FBI—and their testimony could be made public should Congress vote to release the government’s files on Epstein in full. 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released their own batch of emails Wednesday, including one where Epstein claimed Trump “knew about the girls.” If this email is anything to go by, it appears that the girls may have known about him too. 

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of hundreds of immigrants detained in Chicago, amid the Trump administration’s reckless “Operation Midway Blitz.”

U.S District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said the government may have violated a consent decree against “warrantless arrests” because most of those who were arrested didn’t have a criminal record or deportation order. Cummings ordered those who do not pose a significant risk or have mandatory detention orders to be granted bond by November 21.

Cummings is giving the Department of Justice one week to produce a list of all immigrants that fall in that category out of the 615 arrested by federal agents. If the detainees don’t have a deportation order or criminal record, Cummings said he would release them on a $1,500 bond. He has also prohibited the government from trying to convince them to sign voluntary removal documents in the meantime.

Most were processed in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Bridgeview, a Chicago suburb, but others have been sent to detention centers across the country. A DOJ attorney, William Weiland, said that at least 12 of the detainees were a security risk, and asked the government to stay any releases to vet all of them. Cummings said that the government could have that time, ordering that government attorneys and the detainees’ counsel turn in a status report on November 21.

Still, Cummings’s decision is another rebuke to the Trump administration’s immigration efforts in the Chicago metro area, which have included conducting violent raids in the city’s neighborhoods, as well as using weapons such as tear gas against protesters.

If many of the immigrants detained by federal agents are eventually released, it will show that the Trump administration’s tactics were not just excessive but illegal. If that is the case, will any officials, whether they are low-level law enforcement or members of the administration, face any consequences?

Donald Trump is beginning to squirm under pressure as Congress pushes to release the Epstein files.

Trump ranted on Truth Social Wednesday about the bipartisan bid to make the case files public, claiming that the entire effort was a “hoax” to deflect from the government shutdown.

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” Trump posted. “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!” he continued.

In a separate post, Trump reiterated that he believed Democrats were “using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in particular, their most recent one—THE SHUTDOWN!”

Congress is potentially hours away from voting on a discharge petition that would force a vote regarding the files’ release.

For months, just four Republicans had penned their signatures on the discharge petition. But in early November, concern swelled among GOP lawmakers that Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was even cozier than previously understood: A few conservative representatives with ties to the FBI and the Justice Department spilled last week that the true details of the Epstein files are “worse” for Trump than previously reported.

Apparently trying to unravel conservative support for the files’ release, Trump phoned his MAGA acolytes Tuesday in an unsuccessful attempt to get them to remove their signatures from the petition.

Files released by House Democrats early Wednesday shed even more light on the Trump-Epstein connection, illustrating that as late as 2011 Epstein was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of the financier’s residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote to his longtime girlfriend and criminal associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, at the time.

When queried by Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of Trump’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”