Epstein calls Donald Trump ‘the worst person I’ve ever known’ and ‘dangerous’

Jeffrey Epstein called President Donald Trump a “dangerous man” in newly shared emails included in a set of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

House lawmakers this week released more than 20,000 pages of documents from Mr. Epstein’s estate, including an alleged February 8, 2017 conversation between former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Mr. Epstein.

The exchange took place nearly three weeks after President Trump’s first inauguration on January 20, 2017.

“Remember what I told you, I’ve met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump. He doesn’t have a single good cell in his body, so yes, he’s dangerous,” Epstein told Summers in an email, according to ABC News.

When asked for comment by PEOPLE, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson said, “These emails prove literally nothing. The liberal media is hell-bent on distracting the Democratic Party to talk about anything other than their complete loss to President Trump in the shutdown fight,” noting that the recent government shutdown fight ended before Democrats extended the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Jackson added: “We will not be distracted and the entire administration will continue to deliver on the promises the President was elected to make, including making America affordable again.”

Mr. Trump’s relationship with Mr. Epstein, who has repeatedly mentioned the president in messages over the years, has come under new scrutiny since the emails were released. Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee shared three redacted email communications Wednesday among documents they collected. One letter was written by convicted sex offender Epstein to his close personal friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the other two were written to Michael Wolff, Trump’s biographer.

The first email exchange, dated April 2, 2011, was between Epstein, a former friend of President Trump, and Maxwell.

“Please understand that the dog that didn’t bark is Trump,” Epstein wrote. “(The victim’s name redacted) spent many hours with him at my house, and his name was never mentioned.”

Maxwell replied, “I’ve been thinking about that…”

In a Dec. 16, 2015, exchange with Wolf, the journalist and author appears to have warned Epstein that CNN would ask Trump about their relationship at the upcoming presidential debate.

“If we could give him an answer, what do you think it should be?” Epstein asked.

Wolff apparently responded, “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he’s not on the plane and he’s not going home, that gives you valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that could potentially benefit you, or if it really looks like he can win, you can help him and create debt.”

“Of course, if asked, he could say that Jeffrey is a great guy who got a bad deal and is a victim of political correctness that will be outlawed in the Trump administration,” he said.

The New York Times, citing a transcript of the debate, reported that President Trump was ultimately not asked about Epstein.

In the third email to Mr. Wolf, dated January 31, 2019, Mr. Epstein wrote, “(redacted victim’s name) Mar-a-Lago,” followed by another redacted portion. “Mr. Trump said he asked me to resign from Congress, even though I’m not even a member of Congress. Of course, he knew about the girls because he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

When PEOPLE previously asked for comment about the emails with Epstein, Maxwell and Wolf, the White House shared a statement from press secretary Caroline Leavitt accusing House Democrats of pushing a “hoax” to distract from Trump’s “historic accomplishment.”

“Democrats selectively leaked emails to liberal media to create a false narrative to smear President Trump,” Levitt said. “The ‘unnamed victim’ referred to in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, and President Trump has repeatedly stated that he was not involved in any wrongdoing and that he ‘could not have been friendlier’ to her during their limited interactions.”

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for making female employees, including Giuffre, uncomfortable,” she added.

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The email was shared amid continued pressure to release the Epstein Files, a cache of documents related to Epstein’s criminal cases.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged with one count of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of conspiracy to traffick in the sex of a minor. Although he maintained his innocence, he died by suicide in his cell at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in August 2019.