U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, said Wednesday newly released emails show President Donald Trump “knew what was going on” with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In one of the emails from 2019 Epstein wrote to a journalist that Trump “knew about the girls,” according to a copy released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
“It is showing that he was well aware and he was trying to cover his tracks at that point in time,” Crockett said during an appearance on CNN.
There remain many unanswered questions about exactly what Epstein was suggesting Trump knew.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the emails when asked about them at her Wednesday briefing.
“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong,” Leavitt said.
She said Trump has said he and Epstein were both from Palm Beach and Epstein was a member of Mar-a-Lago until Trump kicked him out “because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.”
Epstein was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019. Ruled a suicide, his death sparked conspiracy theories about whether he was silenced to protect powerful conspirators.
Crockett, a member of the Oversight Committee, said the emails show Epstein had some kind of leverage over Trump.
She noted the emails released this week came from a batch provided to the committee by the Epstein estate and not the Justice Department.
President Donald Trump has received bipartisan pushback for his administration’s decision not to release all files from the federal sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Crockett questioned why the White House has opted not to release all of that information if it would demonstrate Trump did nothing wrong.
“If you know that you are free and clear then why not say ‘you know what, release the files?’” Crockett said.
Crockett said committee Democrats are still reviewing the materials they received and looking for anything additional of value that should be released to the public.
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Joseph Morton covers the intersection of business and politics in the Washington Bureau. Before joining The News, Joseph worked for CQ Roll Call and the Omaha World-Herald. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
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