Michael Wolff: What journalist said to Jeffrey Epstein about Donald Trump

Jeffrey Epstein claimed US President Donald Trump spent "hours at my house" with one of the disgraced financier's victims, according to newly-released emails. Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, made the bombshell claim in emails obtained by the House Oversight Committee and released by Democrats.

The emails - including one in which Epstein wrote how his former friend Trump "knew about the girls" - challenge the President's claims he knew nothing of the Epstein's sex-trafficking operation and abuse of women and girls, some as young as 14.

Trump has said he and Epstein were once friendly but had a falling out. However, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the emails raise new questions about their relationship.

One 2011 email - believed to be to his former partner and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell - even details how the now-president was "the dog that hasn't barked", adding how a redacted name "spent hours at my house with him", yet "he has never once been mentioned".

In another message, Epstein is told of rumours Trump - during his campaign to become president in 2015 - could be asked about their relationship. Epstein asks journalist Michael Wolff, who had recently written a book about then-candidate Trump, what answer he would craft for him.

Wolff responded: "I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime."

The revelations come as a move to force a vote in the US House of Representatives to release the Epstein files looks certain to move a step closer. It requires 118 signatures from representatives and currently stands at 117 - though recently-elected Democrat Adelita Grijalva, of Arizona, is set to be sworn in and has vowed to back the motion, prompting a vote.

Representative Robert Garcia, of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said: "These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the president."

President Trump has been unable to escape scrutiny over the Epstein case, despite repeatedly claiming he fell out with the financier and knew nothing about his illegal activities.

However, he has refused to order the release of investigatory files compiled during the probe into Epstein, known as 'the Epstein files'.