WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee, primarily Democrats, have unveiled a series of emails from Jeffrey Epstein that include mentions of former President Donald Trump. According to these lawmakers, the emails imply that Epstein might have believed Trump was aware of his illicit activities at the time of Epstein’s death.

Former President Trump has consistently and strongly refuted any allegations of having knowledge about Epstein’s sex-trafficking operations.

In 2019, Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in prison as he awaited trial on federal charges related to sex trafficking and conspiracy, which involved numerous underage victims.

The House Oversight Committee Democrats stated that the emails, selected from a vast collection of documents provided by Epstein’s estate, raise further questions concerning the nature of the association between Epstein and Trump.

In one email exchange between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote of Trump: “of course he knew about the girls.” 

Wolff replied that Epstein should use Trump’s denial of their association to his political advantage. 

“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote in one of the letters released by House Democrats. “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.”

The release of the emails comes as the president has for months faced increasing pressure to force more disclosure in the case of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. 

Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them, while Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by him.

It also once again puts a spotlight on Trump’s former friendship with Epstein, which the president has said ended two decades ago after a falling-out. Trump said recently that he cut ties with Epstein because he “stole” young women — including Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers — who worked for the spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

The case against Epstein was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Trump had suggested during the presidential campaign that he’d seek to open the government’s files into Epstein, but much of what the government has released so far had already been out there.

In Congress, members on both sides of the aisle have pushed for more disclosures into Epstein and his associates, but have faced pushback from Republican leaders in control of both chambers. 

Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who was just sworn into the House of Representatives, has declared she will be the decisive signature on a petition forcing the release of the Department of Justice’s ‘Epstein files’, setting up a vote on the House floor early next month.