Many right-wing figures on social media dismissed the release of the entire document as a hoax due to an email sent by Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. “I want you to realize that the dog that won’t bark is Trump… [VICTIM] Spent hours with him at my house,” Epstein wrote, before adding that Trump “never mentioned anything,” including “the chief of police.”
Maxwell replied: “I’m thinking about it.”
The victim’s name was redacted in the email initially released by Democrats on the committee Wednesday morning, but not when it was released widely by Republicans later Wednesday. That document shows the name “Virginia,” which the White House says refers to Virginia Guiffre, who accused Epstein of exploiting her for years before he died by suicide earlier this year.
MAGA figures claimed that since Guiffre himself has said that he was not aware of any wrongdoing on Trump’s part, the amendment was evidence that Democrats were trying to make false allegations against the president.
Right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich wrote on X, “Today’s Epstein emails show members of the regime media colluding with Jeffrey Epstein to spread rumors about Trump.”
Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN that the document came to her from the already redacted Epstein estate.
Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly spoke about the Epstein case on her show on Wednesday. But instead of addressing Trump’s allegations, she tried to claim Epstein, according to someone close to the case, was not a pedophile.
Kelly said, “Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile.” “He was into barely legal types of girls. Like, he liked 15-year-old girls. And I realized that’s disgusting. I’m certainly not trying to make any excuses for it. I’m just giving you the facts, that he wasn’t into 8-year-olds. But he liked very young teenage types that may be even younger than him, but appear legal to a passerby.”