Epstein’s emails, texts with inner circle show Trump was a regular topic

Jeffrey Epstein’s private emails and text messages, among the more than 20,000 documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, provide a glimpse into his relationships with people who formed part of his inner circle during his final years. And they repeatedly touched on President Trump.

Epstein increasingly turned to close Trump ally Steve Bannon, journalist Michael Wolff and lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler as his reputation cratered and his status among the world’s most powerful shrank in the years before his 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell. Ruemmler at the time was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins and had served as White House counsel during the Obama administration. She is now the chief legal officer for Goldman Sachs.

The emails show they often talked with Epstein about Mr. Trump, an old friend from New York and Florida, who has previously said he cut ties with Epstein years earlier. Mr. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing. Epstein, in return, often sought advice or sounding boards for some of his most important personal projects, ranging from deals in the Middle East to his goal of reviving his shattered reputation through a documentary with Bannon.

Mr. Trump, in a post on his social media site, raged against Congressional Democrats who on Wednesday seized upon a 2019 email in which Epstein wrote Mr. Trump “knew about the girls” — an allegation that Mr. Trump has forcefully and consistently denied for years.

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” Mr. Trump wrote, referring to the federal government shutdown that ended Wednesday.

Epstein and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon

There were hundreds of texts and emails between Bannon and Epstein covering a wide range of topics, including the Middle East, possible business deals and several conversations on how Epstein should portray himself in the media.

Several of their interactions include disparaging remarks about Mr. Trump, with one text saying the president is the “worst negotiator in human history.”

In one exchange from June 28, 2019 — just a week before Epstein’s arrest — he wrote to  Bannon, “Now you can understand why Trump wakes up in the middle of the night sweating when he hears you and I are friends.”

Bannon was a key player in Epstein’s longshot effort to rehabilitate his reputation. Bannon filmed hours of interviews with Epstein as part of a planned documentary, saying in a 2018 text, “I’d like to do a documentary on the real story.” Epstein answered, “yes, great idea.” A source who was close to Epstein told CBS News he planned a public relations campaign aimed at portraying himself in a redemptive light.

Several media projects focused on Epstein were in development at the time, and emails show Bannon and Epstein discussing filmmakers for their documentary after learning Netflix was making a competitor film. The existence of the film about Epstein, called “Filthy Rich,” by director Joe Berlinger, was brought to their attention by well-known publicist Peggy Siegal.

In one exchange, Bannon said the film Epstein had in mind sounds like a “potential hagiography,” referring to works that chronicle the lives of saintly figures.

They then considered other possible directors to enlist for the project, which was never released.

The last exchange between Bannon and Epstein was on July 6, 2019, the day Epstein was arrested at Teterboro airport on sex trafficking charges by federal agents. Epstein and Bannon started texting early that morning, making plans for filming their future documentary. At one point, Bannon texted Epstein,”If we can arrange it can we film on the island?” Epstein responded “yes.” Hours later, Epstein texted Bannon, “Can we do late morning, say 11. Am?”

“You r not coming in?” Bannon wrote to Epstein at 4:37 p.m. that day. There was no reply.

About two hours later, Epstein was arrested.

Epstein and author Michael Wolff

Wolff, a prolific profiler of the rich and powerful who had penned several bestselling books about Mr. Trump and his administration, provided a nexus between Epstein, the president and other powerful people.

One day in November 2018, Wolff wrote to Epstein that he planned to meet with Bannon the next afternoon while working on a forthcoming project.

“I was thinking of opening with you and Bannon talking about Trump,” Wolff wrote. “Would let you sound smart and offer what I think would be a crowd-pleasing perspective, and make you seem like a credible player–former friend of Trump, advisor to world leaders, sought after person, etc–without having too much rehash of old stuff.”

The duo frequently discussed Mr. Trump, with Epstein shooting the journalist emails that included one asking why reporters hadn’t interviewed the president’s former classmates at the Wharton School of Business.

He then referred to a lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump challenging a congressional subpoena of his banking records. Epstein described the records as “very bery bad.”

Epstein also forwarded an email to Wolff that he had originally sent to Kathryn Ruemmler describing his view of the way Mr. Trump set up his business deals. Epstein wrote, “Donald doesn’t really own very much, he rents out his name.”

Epstein sought out and cultivated relationships with powerful and famous people for decades, portraying himself as a bridge to connect the world’s elite. In 2018, he introduced Wolff to former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who had led investigations against Bill and Hillary Clinton and had also been part of Epstein’s legal team.

Starr, who two years earlier resigned as chancellor of Baylor University amid criticism of the school’s handling of student sexual assault claims, responded to Epstein’s introductory email, thanking him and telling Wolff he was “delighted” to be in his “orbit.” Starr died in 2022.

Wolff’s outreach to Starr came as he was working on a book about Mr. Trump’s legal troubles. Epstein had thoughts on that, too, forwarding in January 2019 an email he had sent to Ruemmler alleging financial schemes tied to Trump properties.

In an appearance Wednesday night on a Daily Beast podcast, Wolff said Epstein and Trump had a “deep relationship” and shared an obsession with “women, girls, models.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Wolff “routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”

Epstein and attorney Kathryn Ruemmler

Ruemmler, now a Goldman Sachs executive, was a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins during the last years of Epstein’s life. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs told CBS News in October that Ruemmler’s cultivation of Epstein was related to her work for the law firm.

“As we’ve said before, and has been repeatedly reported, Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Mr. Epstein when she was the global chair of the white collar defense and investigations practice at Latham & Watkins,” the spokesperson said.

In March 2019, four months before Epstein’s arrest, he sent a text to Bannon describing a pitch for a news article that would support Epstein’s reputation effort. Epstein referred to the pitch as a “Ruemmler proposal,” and the idea for the article was to address criticism of a 2008 agreement in which Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state charge of procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18 — and a federal case was closed.

“Far from…receiving a sweetheart deal, Mr. Epstein was subject to a lengthy, aggressive and highly unusual federal investigation for what were, in essence, local offenses of sexual solicitation,” Epstein wrote, describing the “proposal.”

In Epstein’s communications with Ruemmler, he also dropped hints that he had dirt on the president. One email chain, discussing a 2018 New York Times opinion column on impeachment, included a tantalizing Epstein quip.

“You see, I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein wrote.

“My guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea. what it means to have your fixer flip,” he continued — a reference to Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” who ended up cooperating with investigations into his ex-boss. Cohen served prison time for financial crimes and lying to Congress.

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