President Donald Trump moved aggressively to deflect scrutiny on Friday after a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein’s private emails — released this week by the House Oversight Committee — resurfaced his own long-scrutinized relationship with the disgraced financier.
In one exchange, Summers lamented that the woman had grown distant: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy.’ I said awfully coy u are,” he wrote. Epstein replied within minutes, offering reassurance and strategy: “she’s smart. making you pay for past errors. ignore the daddy im going to go out with the motorcycle guy … annoyed shows caring, no whining showed strength.”
Other emails show Summers forwarding Epstein notes from the woman and asking whether he should respond. “Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote in one case. Epstein encouraged the silence, replying, “She’s already begining to sound needy 🙂 nice.”
Hoffman now says he deeply regrets the interactions. “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation, and thus delayed justice for his survivors,” he told the Journal. “Ultimately I made the mistake, and I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.”
Hoffman could not be reached for comment.
JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The release of the files — which Trump framed as an effort to expose an “Epstein Hoax” that he claims Democrats are weaponizing to distract from the shutdown– show Epstein repeatedly discussing Trump. They contradict Trump’s own account of their split, and Epstein offers his private, often caustic assessments of the man who would become president.
Across messages with lawyers, acquaintances, reporters, academics, and political figures, Epstein invoked Trump constantly, often bragging that he possessed insider insight into Trump’s private world. In one 2017 exchange, Epstein dismissed him sharply: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him.” A year later, he described Trump as “evil beyond belief, mad… nuts!!!”
In a 2019 message to author Michael Wolff, Epstein flatly rejected the story: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.”In another email, Epstein claimed a woman who worked at the club had been involved with him and wrote, “Trump knew of it, and came to my house many times during that period.” The documents do not substantiate these assertions, and the White House has denied them.
Epstein also imagined himself as holding leverage over Trump. In a December 2018 exchange, after someone suggested Trump’s critics were simply trying to “take down” the president, Epstein replied: “yes thx. its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
