Continuous revelations about the Epstein scandal are causing uproar in the US, with Democrats setting up a new Watergate aimed at overthrowing US President Donald Trump.
Trump made a surprise reversal regarding the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who was convicted of sex crimes against minors and committed suicide in 2019 without revealing the names of his clients. Until recently, Trump was strongly opposed to the public release of the investigation documents, but is now demanding they be made public.
It seems, however, that he had no other choice, as for the first time in his term, he faces opposition from a significant part of his own Republican Party, something the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta describes as a negative sign for the president.
During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to release the Epstein documents, but he did not keep the promise after taking office. Congressional Democrats claim they have received letters from Epstein's heirs, written between 2011 and 2019, which mention Trump, but without direct evidence that he was an Epstein client.
Comparison to Watergate
Vladimir Vasilyev, senior researcher at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, compared the scandal to Watergate, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. "Democrats are ready to exploit the Epstein case to diminish Trump's approval and overturn the result of the 2024 presidential election," he noted.
Two defense options for Trump
According to Vasilyev, Trump currently has two strategies to defend himself. First, he could shift the blame to the Democrats, asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's alleged connections to members of the Democratic Party, including former President Bill Clinton. However, using this tactic is considered unreliable. "A more effective strategy would be to convince the Democrats of his readiness to make concessions on other issues, including foreign policy," the expert clarified.
The situation is reminiscent of Trump's first presidential term, when accusations of his ties to Russia led him to make strict moves against Moscow. According to Vasilyev, something similar is expected now.
Shocking revelations
Democrats released new emails that, according to them, raise new concerns about President Donald Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and how much he knew about the abuse of minors by the former financier and convicted sex offender. The emails released by Democrats include correspondence between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, as well as Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite serving a 20-year sentence for her role in facilitating Epstein's sex trafficking.
In a 2019 email to Wolff, Epstein, convicted of sex crimes, mentions that Trump "knew about the girls," although exactly what he meant by this phrase is not specified. In another email from 2019, Epstein states that Trump "came to my house many times" and "never got a massage." This email was part of a large volume of documents released later the same day by a Democrat-led parliamentary committee.
Trump's denial
Trump has repeatedly and categorically denied knowing anything about Epstein's sex trafficking. He has stated that he and Epstein, who committed suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019, were once friends before their relationship soured.
The Epstein case continues to follow Trump for months, upsetting even his political supporters, who believe the government has covered up Epstein's relationships with the powerful and wealthy, while criticizing the Department of Justice for its reluctance to reveal more evidence surrounding the case.
Trump accused the Democrats of releasing the emails to distract from the shutdown. "Democrats are trying to bring back the Jeffrey Epstein issue because they will do anything to distract from how much they failed on the Government Shutdown and so many other subjects," Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social.
The email revelation coincided with the day that Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva was sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson, offering her faction the majority to force a House vote to release all unclassified documents related to Epstein—something that both Johnson and Trump have resisted until now. "It's time to restore Congress's role as a check and balance on this administration," Grijalva stated.
The volume of documents
The total of the emails released includes a 2011 message to Maxwell, in which Epstein calls Trump "that dog that hasn't barked," adding that Trump "spent hours in my house" with one of his victims, whose name is redacted.
Later the same day, Republicans released a set of 20,000 documents related to Epstein, in which Trump's name appears frequently, usually in the context of his political career or allegations of sexual behavior. In one of the correspondences, Epstein mentions a 20-year-old friend of his, whom he "gave to Donald" in 1993, and talks about photos with "Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen," although it is not specified whether this is a joke.
White House: "Trump did nothing wrong"
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the Democrats of concealing the victim's name in the published emails because the victim was Virginia Giuffre, who committed suicide in April and had described Trump as friendly without accusing him of any wrongdoing in her posthumous book.
"These emails prove nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," Leavitt stated on Wednesday.
Only 4 out of 10 Republicans stated in an October Reuters/Ipsos poll that they approve of Trump's handling of the Epstein files—a much lower percentage than the 9 out of 10 who approve of his general performance in the White House.
Trump and other administration officials approached Republican Congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, trying to persuade them to remove their names from the resolution that would demand the release of all documents, according to reports from Axios and other media.
Boebert told reporters that there was "no pressure" when she met with White House officials to discuss the issue on Wednesday, adding that she remains a supporter of the resolution.
Mace, who has spoken publicly about her experience as a survivor of sexual abuse, is not going to remove her name from the resolution "because of her personal history," her spokeswoman, Sydney Long, stated.
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