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Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images

Just when it seemed he’d pulled off a victory with a Democratic capitulation over the government shutdown, President Donald Trump finds himself back in the clutches of Jeffrey Epstein.

The scandal involving his longtime friend seemed all but forgotten since the summer, when pressure built on the administration to release its files on Epstein, culminating in the revelation Trump had once given Epstein a lewd birthday note. On Wednesday morning, though, it resurfaced in dramatic fashion with a bombshell report that the late sex offender had alleged Trump “spent hours” at his house with a victim and “knew about the girls.” The report comes just as a new push on Capitol Hill accelerates to release the Epstein files and as Epstein’s longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell prepares to ask Trump to free her from prison.

Emails from Epstein’s estate show him discussing his relationship with Trump in the years leading up to his 2019 arrest and subsequent death in federal prison.

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein wrote in a 2011 email to Maxwell. He goes on to say that a victim, whose name is redacted, “spent hours at my house with him , he has never once been mentioned.”

“I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell wrote back.

Her response is sure to draw renewed attention to what she knew about Epstein and Trump, especially now that she prepares a commutation plea to be sent to the White House. An anonymous whistleblower told House Democrats, who released the emails, about a potential “quid pro quo” taking shape between Maxwell and the Justice Department. She is serving a 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges related to her role in abusing girls with Epstein.

Back in July, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met personally with Maxwell behind bars, when the Trump administration sought to tamp down public outrage over its breaking of its promise to release the files. According to a transcript of that meeting, she maintained that she had never seen Trump “in any inappropriate setting in any way.”

If the Trump administration had hoped that would put the matter to rest once and for all, however, Blanche later admitted that he had no idea if she was actually “credible.”

Now, after being transferred to what Democrats describe as a “plum” minimum-security federal prison in Texas, Maxwell is said to be getting assistance from the facility’s warden to prepare her plea. “I am struggling to keep it all together as it is big and there are so many attachments,” she emailed her attorney about the petition.

Trump, who had sought to downplay the scandal over Epstein by claiming the push for the release of the files was all a “hoax,” while simultaneously claiming he’d banished the sex offender from Mar-a-Lago for stealing spa workers, has yet to comment on the new allegations. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign, asserting in a statement that “the Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media” to target Trump. Republicans responded shortly after the release of the new emails by publicizing 23,000 documents from Epstein’s estate.

The emails released by Democrats also show Epstein returning to the topic of his history with Trump years later in correspondence with the author Michael Wolff.

“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” Epstein said in a 2019 email to Wolff, potentially referencing Maxwell’s role in recruiting at least one victim, Virginia Giuffre, from Mar-a-Lago, where Giuffre worked as a teenager.

Another exchange between Wolff and Epstein in 2015, as Trump was preparing to take part in a debate in the Republican presidential primary, showed Epstein contemplating how media questions about the two men’s relationship should be answered.

The emails add fuel to a fight in Congress to release more files related to Epstein, even as the White House has been fighting hard to prevent that from happening. On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson will finally swear in a Democratic lawmaker who would provide the final signature for a petition to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.

Arizona Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva won her special election back in September, but Johnson prevented her from being sworn in (allowing the Epstein files to be released) for seven weeks as he held the House out of session — then purported to be unable to swear her in while the House was out. This prompted Grijalva to file a federal lawsuit accusing Johnson of stalling her swearing-in. On the eve of her finally being sworn in late Tuesday, she said she intends to call Johnson out personally for his “obstruction.”

“I won’t be able to, like, sort of move on if I don’t address it personally. And we’ll see what kind of reaction he has,” Grijalva said.

Two Republicans who had already signed onto the petition are under pressure to backtrack. Lauren Boebert was summoned to the White House to meet with Justice Department officials and Trump has also been trying to reach Nancy Mace, though the New York Times reports his efforts have so far been unsuccessful.

Trump’s Epstein Problem Is Back and Worse Than Ever

Trump’s Epstein Problem Is Back and Worse Than Ever