President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Democrats are resurrecting the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” to divert attention from their mishandling of the government shutdown and other pressing issues.
Trump’s comments came swiftly after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urged journalists to question Democratic lawmakers about the redaction of Virginia Giuffre’s name from a batch of Epstein-related emails released on Wednesday. Leavitt highlighted that Giuffre, who tragically took her own life in April and had previously been employed at Mar-a-Lago, described Trump as “incredibly friendly” in her memoir, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated, “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything to deflect from their poor handling of the Shutdown and other issues.” He warned, “Only a very bad, or foolish, Republican would fall for that trap.”
He further accused Democrats of costing the nation $1.5 trillion with their “recent antics of viciously closing our Country,” suggesting that they should bear the consequences of their actions.
Trump cautioned against getting sidetracked by Epstein-related discussions.
“There should be no focus on Epstein or any other distractions. Republicans should concentrate solely on reopening our Country and addressing the significant damage inflicted by the Democrats,” he concluded.
He followed up with another post shortly after.
“In other words, the Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures, in particular, their most recent one — THE SHUTDOWN!” he wrote.
Moments earlier, Leavitt responded to a question about the emails during the briefing.
“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong, and what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein,” Leavitt said.
In an April 2011 email from Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell, the late disgraced financier wrote, “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump… [redacted] spent hours at my house with him… he has never once been mentioned.”
Guiffre worked at the Mar-a-Lago spa before, and as she stated in her book, Maxwell hired her as a “masseuse,” per CBS News. Leavitt noted Wednesday that Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago because Epstein “was a pedophile” and “creep.”
“It was CBS’s own reporting that recently wrote that Ms. Guiffre maintained, and God rest her soul, that she maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that President Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her,” Leavitt added.
She challenged reporters in the room to ask Democrats why Giuffre’s name was redacted when she is on record with statements against Epstein.
“I think it’s a question worth asking the Democrat party, and you should all go ask them after this briefing, of why they chose to redact that name of a victim who has already publicly made statements about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and is unfortunately no longer with us,” she said.
