Donald Trump says he is unconcerned with the publication of the Epstein files.
The House Oversight Committee recently disclosed a huge number of records from the late Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, and the president, who was mentioned several times in the files, has subsequently under additional scrutiny for his ties with the convicted sexual offender.
On Friday, Nov. 14, Trump, 79, declared on Air Force One that he “doesn’t care” whether new documents are released shortly, as seen in a video provided online by the White House.
“You have to go into Epstein’s friends,” Trump continued. The politician, who was formerly pals with Epstein, then mentioned Reid Hoffman and Bill Clinton but not himself.
Following the revelation of over 20,000 pages of records from Epstein’s estate by House legislators earlier this week, Trump identified the LinkedIn co-founder, 58, and the 42nd president, 79, while requesting federal investigations.
In a long statement on Truth Social on November 14, the president termed the files a “hoax” and appeared to distance himself from the story entirely.
He also accused Democrats of using emails mentioning him to divert attention away from the federal government’s reopening after a historic shutdown, and he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to have the Justice Department look into Epstein’s relationships with a number of other high-profile individuals and institutions, including Hoffman and Clinton.
Bondi, 59, later stated that an investigation is ongoing.
Among the emails revealed earlier this week was a purported February 2017 communication in which Epstein described Trump as “dangerous.”
In a conversation with Treasury Secretary Larry Summers roughly three weeks after Trump’s first inauguration, Epstein told Summers in the claimed email, according to ABC News, “Remember, I told you,, — i have met some really awful individuals,, none as horrible as Trump. He has no quality cells in his body, hence he is deadly.”
When asked for comment by PEOPLE, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson echoed Trump’s accusations that Democrats are using the news of the exchange to distract from the government’s reopening.
“These emails prove literally nothing,” Jackson said in a statement released on November 13. “Liberal outlets are desperately trying to use this Democrat distraction to talk about anything other than Democrats getting utterly defeated by President Trump in the shutdown fight.”
She went on: “We won’t be distracted, and the entire Administration will continue fulfilling the promises the President was elected on, including Making America Affordable Again.”
Epstein died by himself in a detention cell at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019.
In July 2019, he pled not guilty to one count of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to participate in sex trafficking of minors.
The Epstein-related files contain information about the late financier. Prior to his latest backtracking, Trump had pushed for their release.
