Trump dismisses 'Jeffrey Epstein hoax' and urges GOP to focus on ending shutdown

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump on Wednesday, November 12, dismissed renewed scrutiny over Jeffrey Epstein as a political ploy by Democrats to distract from the ongoing government shutdown, calling it “the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, "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."

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” he warned, urging GOP lawmakers to stay focused on reopening the government.

“There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else. Any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!” Trump wrote.

GOP drops 20,000 Epstein files after Democrats release emails

Trump’s post came just hours after House Republicans released more than 20,000 pages of documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, a move they described as an effort to deliver “the full truth.”

The release appeared to be a direct response to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who earlier in the day published several Epstein emails referencing Trump.

In one 2011 message to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump … [Victim] spent hours at my house with him... he has never once been mentioned.”

Democrats redacted the victim’s name, but Republicans reportedly swiftly identified her as Virginia Giuffre, a central Epstein accuser who had allegedly claimed that she never witnessed 'wrongdoing' by Trump.

“Why did Democrats cover up the name when the Estate didn’t redact it?” Republicans asked in a statement.

“It’s because this victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump. Democrats are trying to create a fake narrative to slander President Trump. Shame on them,” they stated.

White House accuses Democrats of ‘smear campaign’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the GOP’s criticism, saying Democrats “selectively leaked” emails to the media to “embarrass the president.”

"When Joe Biden was sitting in [the Oval Office], the Democrats never brought this up. This wasn't an issue that they cared about because they actually don't care about the victims in these cases," she said.

"It is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the Fake News this morning, ahead of Republicans reopening the government," Leavitt said in a White House briefing. 

She reiterated that Trump severed ties with Epstein years ago and allegedly barred him from his Mar-a-Lago resort as well. “The president called Epstein a creep and cut ties with him long ago,” Leavitt added.

Trump’s advisers claimed that the president sees the Democratic release as a calculated attempt to shift the public’s attention from the stalled government funding negotiations and a looming shutdown deadline.

Democrats defended their decision to release the emails, saying they form part of their broader push for transparency surrounding the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein investigation.

Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019 of apparent suicide while awaiting trial on federal trafficking charges. His longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who reportedly appears in several of the newly released emails, is serving a 20-year prison sentence.