{"id":45185,"date":"2025-11-18T20:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45185"},"modified":"2025-11-18T20:14:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T04:14:38","slug":"how-on-earth-are-we-just-now-hearing-about-trumps-hours-with-an-epstein-victim-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/11\/18\/how-on-earth-are-we-just-now-hearing-about-trumps-hours-with-an-epstein-victim-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How on Earth Are We Just Now Hearing About Trump\u2019s \u2018Hours\u2019 With an Epstein Victim?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Epstein said this in writing in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ryanby\u00a0Ryan Cooper<\/a><\/strong> November 13, 2025 (Prospect.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bill
Bill Christeson holds a sign calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, November 12, 2025, outside the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Tom Williams\/CQ Roll Call via AP Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, now we have it. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another batch of documents<\/a> related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Among them were several emails about Donald Trump. One was from Epstein to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell back in 2011. He wrote: \u201ci want you to realize that that dog that hasn\u2019t barked is trump.. [victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there[.]\u201d (Excuse the spelling and grammar errors, that\u2019s all Jeffrey.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now, we\u2019re all familiar with what \u201cspent hours\u201d meant in the context of rich, powerful men and Epstein\u2019s victims\u2014particularly given the reference to \u2018barking,\u2019 which has to mean going to prosecutors or the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More from Ryan Cooper<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epstein also wrote to the author Michael Wolff in 2019: \u201c[victim] mara lago \u2026 trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop[.]\u201d This appears to be a reference to Maxwell picking up victims<\/a> at Mar-a-Lago\u2014raising the question of whether Trump was mad at Epstein\u2019s abuses, or for \u201ctaking our people<\/a>,\u201d as he said in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This certainly puts some more intrigue on the seating yesterday of Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), the 218th vote on the discharge petition in the House to release the Epstein files, as well as the Trump administration\u2019s increasingly desperate campaign<\/a> to stop that vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I have just one question: Was President Biden\u2019s pick to run federal law enforcement, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, kicked in the head by a particularly irritable mule right before assuming office in 2021, and did he thereby spend the next four years wandering around the Justice Department bumping into things and saying, \u201cIt feels like I am forgetting something. Where am I?\u201d Because otherwise his term in office is looking like the greatest law enforcement failure in American history, and Biden\u2019s decision to nominate Garland the most catastrophic personnel decision by any Democratic president since James Buchanan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we at the Prospect<\/em> have covered for years now<\/a>, this is only the latest in about 10,000 stories implicating Trump in Epstein\u2019s abuses. Let\u2019s review some highlights again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. 1992: Trump and Epstein are filmed partying together<\/a> with young cheerleaders at Mar-a-Lago.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. 2002: Trump tells New York<\/em> magazine<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy \u2026 He\u2019s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. 2003: As part of an incredibly revolting book celebrating Epstein\u2019s 50th birthday, Trump sends a birthday note<\/a> with a hand-drawn note of a pubescent, nude female form, and a poem reading in part: \u201cDonald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? \u2026 A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday\u2014and may every day be another wonderful secret.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. 2008: Epstein is finally investigated for sexual abuse of minors. Then-U.S. attorney Alex Acosta grants Epstein one of the most bizarre sweetheart deals<\/a> in American legal history, in which Epstein not only secretly pled to a much lesser charge of soliciting an underage prostitute, but also got all his unnamed accomplices immunized forever.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. 2011: Epstein sends the above email.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. 2016: Epstein claims in another email<\/a> that he is hanging out in Trump Tower a week after the election.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. 2017: Trump nominates Acosta, who has no relevant experience, to run the Department of Labor, which he does until 2019.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. 2019: Epstein is finally indicted for sexual abuse. A few months later, he apparently commits suicide under the most suspicious circumstances imaginable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. 2022: Maxwell is convicted of conspiring with Epstein to abuse children, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. 2025: Trump, back in office, fires the prosecutor<\/a> who successfully prosecuted Epstein. His lawyers have a meeting with Maxwell. She subsequently says that Trump definitely didn\u2019t do anything wrong<\/a>, and then she is transferred to apparently the cushiest prison cell in the Western Hemisphere, according to a recent whistleblower report<\/a>, which includes a service puppy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    That is leaving much out, including Epstein saying on tape that Trump was \u201cmy closest friend for 10 years<\/a>.\u201d I\u2019d argue that this recent email is the most directly damning single piece of evidence, but in context the weight of it all is overwhelming. Any fool can figure out what was going on here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So why are we only hearing about these emails now? They came from Epstein\u2019s personal email account. Are we really to think that the Biden-era Justice Department could not find or get access to this, when the Trump-era DOJ clearly did? It was a regular Gmail account, for crying out loud, and Epstein, being dead, could not fight them in court. The Epstein estate happily honored the request this year for the birthday book. Google would have tripped over themselves obeying a legitimate order, which could have been obtained easily, to turn over the records of the most notorious pedophile in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Indeed, the incriminating email is actually seen as part of a reply from Maxwell, and the \u201cGmax\u201d address was known from\u00a0previous court proceedings<\/a>. It simply beggars belief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Given Garland\u2019s other behavior\u2014like the fact that he dragged his feet for months<\/a> on prosecuting Trump directly for January 6th, and as a recent book by Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis reported<\/a>, halted the investigation for weeks to avoid influencing the 2022 midterms, even though Trump was not on the ballot\u2014I think it is at least plausible that Garland knew about these emails, and refused to leak them or (better yet) have Trump prosecuted just like Maxwell, because he was obsessed with performing political neutrality. By this view, it is unsporting not to give your high-profile political opponents every possible benefit of the legal doubt, to the point where they get away with grotesque violations of legal procedure, and skate on many crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s not let the rest of the Democratic apparatus off the hook. These emails were released by House Oversight Committee Democrats. That committee existed from 2019 to 2022, when Democrats held the House majority. Yet there was no effort to subpoena this material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Meanwhile, Donald Trump ran for president three times, and we have photographic, audio, and video evidence of his relationship with Epstein. Outside of maybe a couple of billboards<\/a> with unknown funders in the South during the 2024 primaries, the Epstein issue never came up in a paid ad from Democrats in any of those campaigns. In fact, the candidate who ran on the Epstein files in 2024 was Trump! \u201cWhen they go low, we go high\u201d is a syndrome that Democrats are afflicted with, but letting your opponent off the hook from a scandal that would have toppled virtually anyone in the world who had this kind of evidence against them is mind-blowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    An important task for the leader of any republic is to prevent rebellions or insurrections. That\u2019s why the Constitution formally enables the suspension of habeas corpus in such circumstances. Biden had a relatively easy task compared to Abraham Lincoln. All Biden had to do was enforce the law against a man who broke it in the most blatant fashion imaginable; or failing that, ruin him politically by any means to hand. Even if these emails could not have been published through the normal process, which they almost certainly could have been\u2014thousands of other Epstein emails were unsealed<\/a> in early 2024\u2014Biden and\/or Garland should have just leaked them. Preventing a fascist from becoming president is more important than stuffy adherence to the letter of Department of Justice internal rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The fact that there is written evidence indicating that Donald Trump either knew about or was somehow involved in Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s pedophile ring, and the Biden administration failed to either find or publicize it, might just doom the American republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First, I want to thank you for reading the Prospect<\/em>. At the end of the day, you\u2019re helping build a more just and fair world by taking the time to read independent and fearless journalism. We hope that when you read our work it isn\u2019t just idle entertainment or cynical ragebait, but something that informs and inspires you. If you agree with that, and I hope you do, we\u2019re asking that you take the next step and consider supporting our work. We don\u2019t have corporate sponsors or billionaire backers \u2013 we have you, our readers. A significant portion of the money it takes to send reporters into the field to write the hard-hitting stories you expect from the Prospect<\/em> comes from readers just like you. Can you chip in today? Your support funds deeply reported investigations into power, how it works, and what it means for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Donate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mitchell Grummon<\/strong>
    Publisher<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Recommended Reading<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The Epstein-Trump Scandal Builds<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    July 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Epstein Signals the End of Donald Trump\u2019s Crackerjack Crisis Management Style<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    July 18, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Jeffrey Epstein Is a Policy Issue<\/a><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Ryan Cooper<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    rcooper@prospect.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ryan Cooper is the Prospect\u2019s managing editor, and author of How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics. He was previously a national correspondent for The… More by Ryan Cooper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Epstein said this in writing in 2011. by\u00a0Ryan Cooper November 13, 2025 (Prospect.org) Well, now we have it. On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another batch of documents related to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Among them were several emails about Donald Trump. One was from Epstein to his accomplice… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45186,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45185\/revisions\/45186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}