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Former President Donald Trump has announced his intention to file lawsuits against author Michael Wolff and the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump contends that recent document releases concerning Epstein, the disgraced financier, have vindicated him from any alleged wrongdoing.
“I haven’t personally reviewed the documents, but I’ve been informed by credible sources that they not only clear my name, but also contradict the expectations of my detractors on the radical left,” Trump stated to journalists aboard Air Force One during his flight to Florida on Saturday night.
Trump accused Wolff, who penned an unauthorized biography about him, of collaborating with Epstein in an effort to undermine his political ambitions.
“We are likely to pursue legal action against Wolff. As for the Epstein estate, that might also be on the table, but Wolff is definitely our target,” Trump declared.
He further alleged that Epstein had been “working with Wolff to politically damage me. That’s certainly not what you call a friend,” Trump added.
Wolff featured in many of the Epstein documents published during last November’s release, in which he appeared to be acting as the disgraced financier’s unofficial adviser and publicist before the 2016 election.
Here’s the latest on the release of the Epstein files
In February 2016, Wolff suggested Epstein could be the “bullet” to end Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“Yeah, you’re the Trump bullet,” Wolff responded to an email from Epstein, who noted that he was being approached by more reporters as Trump’s popularity in the polls grew.
In another email, Wolff floated the possibility of intimidating Trump for his own benefit — as he warned Epstein that the then-GOP candidate could be asked about their alleged ties while on the campaign trail.
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” he added in a follow-up the next day.
“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.”
Responding to questions about the documents, Wolff said at the time that he couldn’t remember the context.
Describing Epstein as “an enormously valuable source,” he added, “part of the context of this is that I was pushing Epstein at that point to go public with what he knew about Trump,” the Times of London reported.