The White House’s reaction to the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files has sparked widespread discussion.
In August 2019, Epstein was discovered dead in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, New York City. The financier, who had been apprehended earlier that year, passed away at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Donald Trump, a former acquaintance of Epstein, has consistently stated that he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activities.
On Wednesday (November 12), the Oversight Committee unveiled documents as part of its investigation into Epstein and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell.
The committee released three distinct emails in which Epstein referenced Trump. One email suggested that an individual identified as ‘Victim 1’ had ‘spent many hours’ with Trump. Another claimed that Trump ‘knew about the girls’.
The White House subsequently stated that this unidentified victim is Virginia Giuffre, who had previously asserted that she did not witness any misconduct from Trump during their interactions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt engaged in a confrontation with a reporter who inquired about the reasons behind Republicans urging their fellow party member Lauren Boebert to withdraw her name from a petition to release the files.
Leavitt commended the Trump administration’s transparency, stating that the president had been more open regarding Epstein ‘than any other administration ever’.
She further stated: “This is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government.”
Observers online have noted that this response does not deny the authenticity of the emails but rather emphasizes their leak.
“‘Leaked the emails to the fake news.’ So the emails are real, thanks,” one individual commented on TikTok, while another added: “‘Leaked these emails to the fake news.'”
In a statement provided to the media, Leavitt addressed the leaked emails and Trump’s mention: “The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.
“The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”
The statement continued: “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
This development followed Trump signing a bill that ended the longest government shutdown in US history.