Article By Michael Katz
President Donald Trump said Monday that newly released documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein reinforce his insistence that he was never friendly with the late convicted sex offender, rejecting renewed scrutiny over their relationship.
In a Truth Social post, the president again denied ever visiting Epstein’s private Caribbean island, which prosecutors have linked to sex trafficking, and accused Epstein and author Michael Wolff of working together to damage him politically during his first term.
“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,” Trump wrote.
“So much for the Radical Left’s hope against hope, some of whom I’ll be suing,” he continued.
“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.”
Trump has repeatedly sought to distance himself from Epstein amid continuing public attention on the disgraced financier’s ties to prominent figures.
Wolff wrote an unauthorized 2018 Trump biography, “Fire and Fury,” about Trump’s first administration.
He has written three other books critical of Trump’s political career, including “All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America,” which focused on the 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump on Sunday threatened to sue Wolff and Epstein’s estate after the DOJ’s latest release of files Friday included communications that showed Epstein sought help from former independent counsel Ken Starr in pushing the idea of an indictment of a “sitting pres.”
“My good friend Michael Wolffe [sic] of Fire and Fury wanted to speak to you totally off the record. = tho[u]ghts” Epstein wrote to Starr on May 18, 2018.
“He wanted some color on indicting a .. sitting pres, between us, he has seen a draft of one. . ) .. What does not subject to [criminal] process mean. ? l assume trump corp has non[e] of the [constitutional] baggage?”
Starr, who investigated former President Bill Clinton, wrote back later the same day: “Happy to do so. Feel free to give Mic=ael my email address.”
Wolff reportedly also once told Epstein he could be the “bullet” to end Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign if he stepped into the spotlight to discuss his relationship with him.
“NYT called me about you and Trump. Also, Hillary [Clinton] campaign digging deeply. Again, you should consider preempting,” Wolff wrote to Epstein on Feb. 19, 2016.
Epstein, who died by suicide in August 2019 in federal custody while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, invited Wolff to join him and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a meeting, but Wolff declined.
The documents also revealed that in 2015, Wolff encouraged Epstein to use damaging information as leverage against Trump.
In one email, Wolff floated the idea of intimidating Trump, warning Epstein that Trump could be asked about their alleged ties while campaigning.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” he added in a follow-up email the next day.
“If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you valuable PR and political currency,” he continued.
“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.”
Epstein also said Trump visited his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion, but suggested he was not involved in illicit activity.
“Trump knew of it. and came to my house many times during that period,” Epstein wrote in a Feb. 1, 2019, email to himself. “He never got a massage.”
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