Epstein’s “Trump knew” email wasn’t sent to himself — and other big corrections from the newly released messages
Short answer: No, Jeffrey Epstein did not email himself saying “Trump knew.” He emailed author Michael Wolff. And while the newly released emails contain explosive claims about Donald Trump, they are Epstein’s words — not proven facts. Here’s what’s real, what’s wrong, and what still isn’t verified.
Now the twist: the House Oversight Committee Democrats just published three Epstein emails that mix jaw‑dropping lines with murky sourcing. Media outlets reported the highlights, the White House called it a smear, and key details remain unconfirmed. We sifted the evidence to separate signal from noise.
The most important correction up front
- False: “Epstein wrote a paranoid email to himself in February 2019 about Trump.”
- What we found: Credible reporting shows Epstein emailed Michael Wolff in February 2019 — not himself — and wrote that Trump “knew about the girls.” In another email, he said a redacted victim “worked at Mar‑a‑Lago,” Trump “came to my house many times,” and “He never got a massage.” These lines appear in coverage of the committee’s release, but they are Epstein’s assertions, not independent findings.
- Sources: CBS News; NBC Chicago; House Oversight Committee Democrats
- Links: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails-house-oversight/ | https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/jeffrey-epstein-emails-donald-trump-bill-clinton-prince-andrew/3851038/ | https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-oversight-committee-releases-jeffrey-epstein-email-correspondence-raising
What the new emails actually are — and how we got them
On Nov. 12, 2025, House Oversight Committee Democrats released three emails attributed to Epstein’s estate:
- A 2011 email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell claiming Trump “spent hours at my house” with a victim.
- Two emails to author Michael Wolff (2015 and 2019). One says, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” Another includes the lines about the victim working at Mar‑a‑Lago, Trump visiting “many times,” and “He never got a massage.”
- Coverage emphasized the committee’s claims and included caveats that not every detail had been independently verified.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the release as a partisan “smear,” asserted the redacted victim is Virginia Giuffre, and pointed to Giuffre’s past statements that she never accused Trump of wrongdoing. TIME noted it could not independently verify that the redacted name was Giuffre.
- Links: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-white-house-holds-briefing-as-newly-released-epstein-emails-reference-trump | https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-says-epstein-emails-released-smear-trump-2025-11-12/ | https://time.com/7333355/virginia-giuffre-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails/
The story that’s being told — and the facts that ground it
The emails surfaced years after the Miami Herald’s “Perversion of Justice” series (Nov. 2018) reignited scrutiny of Epstein’s past and helped set the stage for his July 2019 indictment in New York for sex trafficking.
- Context: The Herald identified about 80 victims (locating roughly 60) and highlighted a 2008 non‑prosecution agreement that let Epstein plead to state charges and gave immunity to “potential co‑conspirators,” a provision reviewers later called highly unusual.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two Florida state charges and registered as a sex offender.
He died by suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on Aug. 10, 2019. The medical examiner ruled suicide by hanging; a DOJ inspector general review later found negligence/misconduct enabled the suicide.
- Correction: Not a Brooklyn jail.
What’s verified, what’s misleading, and what we just don’t know
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Verified or well‑supported
- The three emails exist as described by House Oversight Democrats; media reported their content with caveats. https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/house-oversight-committee-releases-jeffrey-epstein-email-correspondence-raising
- Epstein emailed Wolff in 2015 and 2019; the 2019 note includes “Trump knew about the girls.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails-house-oversight/
- Lines about a victim working at Mar‑a‑Lago, Trump visiting Epstein’s house “many times,” and “He never got a massage” appear in coverage of the released emails. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/jeffrey-epstein-emails-donald-trump-bill-clinton-prince-andrew/3851038/
- Independent of Epstein’s emails, Epstein house manager Juan Alessi testified that Trump visited for dinner and “never” got a massage. This aligns with, but does not prove, Epstein’s claim. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/jeffrey-epstein-emails-donald-trump-bill-clinton-prince-andrew/3851038/
- Trump has said Epstein “stole” spa employees; when pressed about Giuffre, he replied, “Yeah, he stole her.” https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnap/date/2025-07-29/segment/01
- Trump and Epstein’s relationship soured after the 2004 Palm Beach mansion auction; club records show Epstein’s Mar‑a‑Lago membership closed in Oct. 2007. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/the-facts-and-timeline-of-trump-and-epsteins-falling-out
- Virginia Giuffre was recruited by Maxwell while working at Mar‑a‑Lago around 2000; she has said she was 16 (weeks before her 17th birthday). https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/virginia-giuffre-memoir-maralago-ghislaine-epstein
- Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025 in Western Australia. https://apnews.com/article/778c4fdd6fac2522133ca3d79244bccd
- Giuffre previously said she did not accuse Trump of wrongdoing and described him as friendly in limited interactions. https://time.com/7333355/virginia-giuffre-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails/
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Misleading or incorrect in the original article
- Email “to himself”: No. The February 2019 message was to Michael Wolff. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails-house-oversight/
- “Have fun” line to Wolff: We found that phrase in a separate 2017 chain from agent Faith Kates to Epstein, not from Epstein to Wolff. Mark original claim as unverified/likely wrong. https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/epstein-email-suggests-relationship-trump-000930676.html
- Brooklyn jail: Wrong facility; Epstein died at MCC Manhattan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeffrey_Epstein
- Graphic quotes minimizing abuse (“$200 rub and tug,” “most in their twenties”): We did not find these phrases in major outlets’ coverage of the released emails. Mark as unverified.
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Unknowns and open questions
- Who is the redacted victim? The White House says it’s Virginia Giuffre; TIME says it cannot independently verify. Treat the identification as a claim, not confirmed fact. https://time.com/7333355/virginia-giuffre-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails/
- Independent corroboration of Epstein’s claims: Beyond Alessi’s testimony about “no massage,” the emails remain Epstein’s assertions. No public evidence shows prosecutors validated the “he knew” line.
How these threads fit together
Think of the email trove like a messy group chat screenshot: it’s intriguing, it names names, but it’s still one participant’s version of events. In 2011, Epstein tells Maxwell that Trump spent hours at his house with a victim. In 2015 and 2019, he tells Wolff that Trump knew about “the girls,” adds that a victim worked at Mar‑a‑Lago, and that Trump visited “many times” but “never got a massage.”
Two things can be true at once:
- The emails are real and newsworthy.
- They are not proof that Trump committed a crime.
There are shards of alignment — Alessi’s testimony that Trump didn’t get massages, the public record of Trump and Epstein’s falling‑out, and Trump’s later comment that Epstein “stole” spa employees. But the boldest claims in the emails remain just that: claims, authored by a man who was under growing legal pressure after the Miami Herald’s 2018 investigation and before his 2019 arrest.
Our reporting process
- We traced the emails to the House Oversight Democrats’ release and cross‑checked lines quoted by CBS News, NBC Chicago, and other outlets.
- We flagged White House statements and checked whether independent outlets verified the redacted name. They hadn’t.
- We corrected timeline and location errors regarding Epstein’s death and his contacts with Trump.
- Where a quote or detail appeared only in secondary write‑ups or couldn’t be matched to the three released emails, we marked it unverified.
Bottom line
- Yes, new Epstein emails mention Trump and include the line “he knew about the girls.”
- No, the February 2019 note was not an email to himself; it was to Michael Wolff.
- Key identity details (the redacted victim) are asserted by the White House but not independently confirmed.
- Several colorful quotes in the original article cannot be verified in the released emails.
- Epstein died at MCC Manhattan, not in a Brooklyn jail.
Until full primary documents are published in a way that allows independent verification of every line and redaction, treat Epstein’s emails as important clues — and handle their most sensational claims with care.