White House Slams ‘Bad-Faith’ Epstein Email Leaks

The White House is pushing back hard against what it calls a “selective and bad-faith” smear campaign by Democrats following their latest release of Jeffrey Epstein documents—emails that reveal left-wing journalist Michael Wolff secretly advised Epstein to attack Donald Trump during the 2016 election to gain “political cover.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the document dump Wednesday, calling it “a deliberate distraction from the Democrats’ shutdown fiasco.” She said the move was part of an ongoing effort to “manufacture a smear against President Trump” rather than pursue justice for Epstein’s victims.

Leavitt clarified that the “unnamed victim” referenced in Epstein’s 2011 correspondence was the late Virginia Giuffre, who had publicly confirmed that Trump “was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and couldn’t have been friendlier” during their brief encounters. Leavitt noted that President Trump permanently banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago decades ago for harassing female staff members, calling the Democrats’ actions “a desperate effort to rewrite history.”

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee echoed the White House’s position, accusing Democrats of “cherry-picking documents to generate headlines” while concealing files that implicate prominent Democratic figures. A GOP spokesperson said Democrats “should stop politicizing this investigation and focus on full transparency and justice for the victims.”

The controversy erupted after Democrats, led by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), released another batch of Epstein-related materials from the ongoing bipartisan investigation—this time including 2016 email exchanges between Epstein and Michael Wolff, the journalist behind the anti-Trump bestsellers Fire and Fury and Siege.

The emails expose Wolff advising Epstein to weaponize anti-Trump rhetoric as a way to rehabilitate his public image amid renewed scrutiny over his sex-trafficking conviction and elite connections.

In early 2016, Wolff warned Epstein that The New York Times and the Hillary Clinton campaign were both investigating his links to Trump, urging him to “preempt” the narrative. Weeks later, Wolff wrote that “becoming an anti-Trump voice gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don’t have now.”

Wolff also cautioned that author James Patterson’s book “Filthy Rich” would reignite public attention because of the election, noting that “the Trump-Clinton angle will amplify the attention tenfold.”

When Epstein asked how to respond to questions about Trump, Wolff replied that if Trump denied visiting Epstein’s homes or flying on his jet, it would provide “valuable PR and political currency.” Wolff even suggested Epstein could “hang him in a way that generates a positive benefit” or “save him” if it appeared Trump would win, “generating a debt.”

The emails further show Wolff asking Epstein to help him contact Tom Barrack, who chaired Trump’s inaugural committee, and Kathy Ruemmler, a former Obama administration prosecutor, for research on his later book about Trump’s presidency. Wolff also sought to verify whether Bill Clinton had ever visited Epstein’s private island—something Clinton has repeatedly denied.

The correspondence continued until May 2019, just months before Epstein’s arrest on federal trafficking charges. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell that August, officially ruled a suicide.

While Democrats argue that the new documents highlight Trump’s alleged efforts to suppress the Epstein files, Republican leaders dismissed those claims as “pure political theater” meant to distract from mounting Democratic scandals.

The House is now preparing to vote on a discharge petition compelling the Department of Justice to release all Epstein records in full. The measure is expected to advance once Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) adds her signature.

Epstein’s legacy continues to haunt Washington, but the Wolff emails now suggest the scandal was not just about abuse and corruption—it was also about political manipulation at the highest levels of the media and Democratic power structure.