A tranche of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday details how disgraced investor Jeffrey Epstein’s strong connections to world leaders, business titans and politicians continued for years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution, and solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
While Epstein’s relationship with Donald Trump — which ended more than a decade before Trump was first elected president — has been at the center of public interest in the documents, the trove also shows how broadly the deceased financier’s influence reached. The messages, which range from the inane to clear efforts to pull the levers of power, feature both men and women and members of both political parties.
A tranche of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday details how disgraced investor Jeffrey Epstein’s strong connections to world leaders, business titans and politicians continued for years after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution, and solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
While Epstein’s relationship with Donald Trump — which ended more than a decade before Trump was first elected president — has been at the center of public interest in the documents, the trove also shows how broadly the deceased financier’s influence reached. The messages, which range from the inane to clear efforts to pull the levers of power, feature both men and women and members of both political parties.
Stephen K. Bannon, a White House strategist during Trump’s first presidency, regularly exchanged text messages with Epstein in the months before the financier was detained in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking. Bannon’s phone number and email address are redacted from the newly released files, but the messages include hyperlinks to media appearances and interviews he gave. In one exchange, Epstein suggests that a woman he is connected with will contact the email recipient. The person responds: “Oh ‘the next future ex-mrs. bannon.’” Bannon spent much of spring 2019 in Europe, and Epstein frequently offered to send a private jet or charter a plane to ferry Bannon to meet him in Paris. Bannon appears to have stayed overnight at Epstein’s home in spring 2019, the messages show.
In early 2018, Epstein began referring to Bannon as a friend in emails. Bannon regularly sent him links to his media appearances, and Epstein would offer feedback.
Epstein advised Bannon on how to engage with European leaders in emails after Bannon was forced out of the first Trump White House and set his sights on exporting political populism abroad.
“If you are going to play here, you’ll have to spend time, europe by remote doesn’t work. Lots and lots of face time and hand holding,” Epstein wrote in a July 2018 email to Bannon. He wrote, “its doable, but time consuming, there are many leaders of countries we can organize for you to have one on. … Europe can be a wife not a mistress.”
Later that summer, Epstein asked Bannon to come to Europe and the political strategist replied: “but let’s discuss — their is a crazed jihad against u — ive never seen anything like it — and I’ve seen a lot.”
Epstein agreed and warned Bannon not to worry and risk diversion from the midterm elections. “Exactly,” Bannon wrote. “But somebody big has u in the gunsights.”
Bannon did not respond to requests for comment.
The documents show two years’ worth of communication between Epstein and Larry Summers, including conversations about ranked-choice voting and talking through Summers’s apparent romantic problems. In one email exchange with the former treasury secretary and Harvard University president, Epstein refers to himself as a “good wing man” as they discuss Summers’s attempts to attract a woman, though Summers ultimately said he would focus on his marriage. Later, in June 2019, until days before Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July that year, Summers again seeks advice seemingly about a woman.
Summers has previously said he deeply regrets his association with Epstein. A representative for Summers declined to comment.
Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister and defense minister, emailed Epstein a news report in September 2013 that said Summers had withdrawn from running to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Barak wrote, “A major blow to a friend. … Now he’ll probably be free in the next few days.” Later that day, Epstein emailed Barak to schedule meetings for him with billionaire banker Ariane de Rothschild and someone referred to as the “kissinger china guy.”
A representative for Barak did not respond to a request for comment.
In a May 2013 email exchange, billionaire Tom Pritzker forwarded Epstein a Washington Post article reporting that his cousin, Penny Pritzker, President Barack Obama’s then-nominee to lead the Commerce Department, had understated her income by roughly $80 million.
Pritzker, chief executive of the Pritzker Organization and chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, wrote to Epstein: “I clearly did something wrong in my last life to have to deal w this bulls—. AND I warned her.” Epstein wrote moments later: “nice to see you” and “please come more often,” and Pritzker responded the following morning, “Always fun.” The exchange took place the same year the Pritzker family broke up the assets in its multibillion-dollar empire.
A representative for Tom Pritzker declined to comment, and representatives for Penny Pritzker did not respond to a request for comment.
The documents reveal extended correspondence between Epstein and Michael Wolff, a journalist whose coverage of society’s elite has at times raised questions about his journalistic methods. Wolff has previously said that Epstein was a source for his 2018 tell-all book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
In a December 2015 email, Wolff told Epstein that CNN was planning to ask Trump about his relationship with Epstein. Epstein wrote back, asking, “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?”
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff responded.
“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.”
In another email from October 2016, shortly after the “Access Hollywood” tape showing Trump bragging in lewd and vulgar terms about groping women circulated, Wolff wrote to Epstein saying there was an “opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him.”
Wolff did not respond to a request for comment. In a podcast appearance with the Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles that aired late Wednesday, Wolff described the emails as “embarrassing” but defended his methods as “playacting” and being “nice” to Epstein to get information about Trump.
“I’m a writer who manages to make relationships that let me tell a story in the ways that the New York Times or other, very reputable, journalistic organizations are unable to tell,” he said.
Kathryn Ruemmler, President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, comes up repeatedly in Epstein’s messages, including in messages where Ruemmler mused about whether she should try to become attorney general. Ruemmler is now chief legal officer for Goldman Sachs.
Many exchanges with Ruemmler, who had a professional relationship with Epstein when she worked at Latham & Watkins LLP, focused on Trump. After Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance crimes, Epstein wrote Ruemmler, “You see, I know how dirty Donald is. my guess is that non-lawyers NY biz people have no idea what it means to have your fixer flip.”
In email exchanges in September 2014, days before then-Attorney General Eric Holder stepped down from his position, Ruemmler appeared to be weighing whether she should replace him at the Justice Department. At the time, she was widely reported to be a contender for the role.
Epstein urged Ruemmler to “talk to boss,” to which Ruemmler said, “Agreed, but I need to be prepared to say yes before I talk to him.” It’s unclear who “boss” refers to.
Epstein then tells Ruemmler, who had recently started working a new job at a private firm, that the decision comes down to the level of “professional, emotional, and financial” risk and reward.
“Most girls do not have to worry about this crap,” Ruemmler replies.
Epstein then jokes, “‘girls?’” and says, “careful i will renew an old habit.” In the same message, he then lists names of influential people he was meeting with that week in New York as the United Nations General Assembly took place. He adds, “you are a welcome guest at any.”
Ruemmler has previously said she regrets ever knowing Epstein.
“The personal emails exclusively occurred before Kathy worked at Goldman Sachs, when Ms. Ruemmler was the global head of the White Collar Defense practice at Latham and Watkins,” Goldman Sachs spokesperson Tony Fratto said in a statement. “As we’ve said before, and has been repeatedly reported, Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Mr. Epstein when she was at Latham & Watkins.” He added, “Kathy is an exceptional general counsel and we benefit from her judgment every day.”
Epstein had exchanges with Deepak Chopra, a new age author, that touched on spiritual and metaphysical connection. In July 2016, Chopra asked Epstein if he knew Trump’s ex-wife Marla Maples. Epstein wrote: “in fact when she told donald she was pregnant. I lost a 10k dollar bet with him, and sent him a truck of baby food. in payment.” In a November 2016 exchange, Epstein sent Chopra a Daily Mail story claiming that a “troubled woman with a history of drug use” made up allegations that she was assaulted by Trump and Epstein when she was 13 years old. When Epstein confirmed to Chopra that she dropped the civil charges against him, Chopra responded, “Good.”
Representatives for Chopra did not respond to a request for comment.
“These emails prove literally nothing,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in an emailed statement. She said Democrats are trying to use the documents as a distraction.
Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria and a top Trump fundraiser, appears in several exchanges. In a March 2016 email exchange, Epstein tells Barrack that he has received calls from reporters asking about Trump but that he has refrained from commenting. “Hope ur good. Let’s catch up,” Barrack responds. In a reply, Epstein writes to Barrack, “send photos of you and child. — makes me smile.”
Embassy representatives for Barrack did not respond to a request for comment.
Cat Zakrzewski, Natalie Allison, Laura Wagner, Desmond Butler, Sabrina Rodriguez, Amy B Wang and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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