Today in Politics, Bulletin 249. 11/13/25

… The latest batch of Epstein documents released by Democrats on House Oversight show how he weaved an intricate web of rich and powerful people around the globe to compromise them and use them for his own dark purposes. They also show that Donald Trump was an instrumental part in his schemes. Here are some key parts from some of the emails:

• April 2011, Epstein to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.”

• Referring to Trump: (Redacted victim’s name) “spent hours at my house with him, (but) he has never once been mentioned.” Maxwell: “I have been thinking about that.”

• Dec. 15, 2015, the night of the Republican primary debate, Michael Wolff to Epstein: (CNN is) “planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards.” Epstein: “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Wolff: “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable P.R. and political currency.” Wolff told Epstein he could use that later to “hang him” or “save him, generating a debt.”

• 2019 email from Epstein to Wolff on Trump’s claim that he forced him to resign his membership at Mar-a-Lago: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

• Epstein in 2018: “i know how dirty donald is.”

• Epstein to a friend: “would you like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.”

• Epstein on Trump’s business practices: “He has no money when he buys the house. His biz model is putting his name on a real estate development and gets a fee for using his name. The hotel biz is just that. Trump put his name on it, and get a 2% fee and maybe a piece of the profit if any on sale. He touts the project as ‘his’… just as in his current financial statements on file as president he lists his ‘income’ as the GROSS receipts of the clubs, with no expenses, not his personal revenue ie the doral golf club loses money every year. It pays out more than it takes in, but he lists the revenue as his income. AMAZING.”

• Responding to an email from someone who called Trump “so gross”. Epstein: “Worse in real life and upclose.”

• Epstein talking about Trump to another person in 2017: “your world does not understand how dumb he really is. he will blame everyone around him. for bad results.”

• Epstein got this email from an unidentified person in 2018: “It will all blow over! They’re really just trying to take down Trump and doing whatever they can to do that...!” Epstein responded: “yes thx. its wild. because i am the one able to take him down.”

• When a woman asked Epstein who he was spending his Thanksgiving with in Palm Beach in 2017, he responded: “david fizel. hanson. trump.”

• NYT reporter Landon Thomas, Jr. sent in an email to Epstein in 2015 that people are “coming to me thinking I have juicy info on you and Trump.” Epstein responded: “have them ask my houseman about donad almost walking through the door leaving his nose print on the glass as young women were swimming in the pool and he was so focused he walked straight into the door.”

… Politico: “Nearly a month before Trump met Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Jeffrey Epstein attempted to pass a message to Russia’s top diplomat: If you want to understand Trump, talk to me. “I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in a June 24, 2018, email to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former PM of Norway who was leading the Council of Europe at the time of the exchange. Lavrov was an apparent reference to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister.”

… “In the email exchange, one of hundreds released by congressional investigators, Epstein indicated he had previously talked about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s forceful ambassador to the UN, before Churkin died in 2017. ‘Churkin was great,’ Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, wrote. ‘He understood Trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.’”

… Epstein would later opine about Trump’s fateful meeting with Putin, which was panned around the world for his apparent capitulations to the Russian dictator. “Do the Russians have stuff on Trump? Today was appalling even by his standards,” wrote Larry Summers, the former Clinton admin Treasury secretary and Obama admin economic adviser, in an email to Epstein on July 16, 2018, the day of the Helsinki summit with Putin.”

… Epstein replied: “My email is full with similar comments. wow. Im sure his view is that it went super well. he thinks he has charmed his adversary. Admittedly he has no idea of the symbolism. He has no idea of most things.”

… Dep. AG Todd Blanche didn’t ask Maxwell a single question about any of these emails when he met with her for two days in a Florida prison. Then he moved her to Club Fed where she is served individual meals and has a puppy and numerous other special privileges while she prepares her clemency petition. I wonder why?

… George Conway: “An important side note about today’s Epstein/Trump revelations.
They show that Blanche’s questioning of Maxwell was either (a) completely incompetent; or (b) intentionally crafted not to elicit facts incriminating Trump. Either way, he is not fit to serve as Dep AG of the US.”

… Blanche responded: “George, you’ve never been confused for a trial lawyer, and these kinds of posts explain why. When I interviewed Maxwell, law enforcement didn’t have the materials Epstein’s estate hid for years and only just provided to Congress. Stop talking. It’s unbecoming.”

… Conway: “Dude, you didn’t even come close to asking a decent follow-up question of Maxwell. And I saw you at your boss’s criminal trial, you know, the one where he was convicted on 34 felony counts: You couldn’t cross-examine your way out of a paper bag.”

… House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin: “DOJ didn’t release any of these emails that mention Trump’s name and identify his role in all these activities. Those came from the estate of Epstein instead. So this is a demonstration that the govt is very deliberately withholding the information that everybody is actually looking for, and anything that could be damaging to Trump.”

… Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) on CNN: Q - “Do you still have a question about whether Trump knew about the sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein? Sessions: Well, I’ve not gone through all of the documents.”

… Jason Kander: “Best case: The President of the United States knew about a pedophilia ring and did nothing to stop it. Medium case: He also used his office to protect the perpetrators. Worst case: Because he was one of the perpetrators.”

… Right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly: “ The Epstein documents have been subpoenaed by House Oversight. This is basically a kind of a middle finger to Trump and Pam Bondi who didn’t want anything more released. Why didn’t Trump just release these? I concede that they sound bad. They don’t sound good.”

… Kelly: “I know somebody very close to this case. Who knows everything. Jeffrey Epstein, in this person’s view, was not a pedophile. He was into the barely-legal type, like he liked 15 year old girls. He wasn’t into like 8 year olds. There’s a difference between a 15 year old and a 5 year old.”

… Karoline Leavitt: “These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the govt opening back up again.”

… CNN pollster Harry Enten: “Trump is 39 points below water on the Epstein case. 39 points in the negative! My goodness gracious. What Trump has been selling on the Epstein files, the Epstein case, the American people have not been buying at all - less than half of REPUBLICANS are buying it. This is his worst issue by far.”

… New YouGov/Economist poll has Trump’s overall favorability rating sinking to 33%.

… Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) has finally been sworn in and signed the Epstein petition at 4:10 PM yesterday, which forces it to the floor for a vote. Right up until the moment she signed, the WH ran a full pressure campaign to try and get either Lauren Boebert or Nance Mace to remove their name from the petition. It didn’t work.

… Grijalva’s first floor speech: “It has been 50 days since the people of AZ’s 7th congressional district elected me to represent them. 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of congress.”

… NYT: “Trump reached out by phone to Nancy Mace, but the two did not connect. Instead, Mace, who is running for governor, wrote Trump a long explanation of her own history of sexual abuse and rape, and why it was impossible for her to change positions. In a social media post, she wrote that ‘the Epstein petition is deeply personal.’”

… “Boebert has been the target of an unrelenting pressure campaign from the WH to remove her name. WH officials have asked her and her staff members what it would take for her to change positions. When that did not work, they issued vague threats, reminding her of the risks of crossing Trump in her district, where he remained popular.”

… “But the hardball tactics did not have their desired effect. Instead, people familiar with Boebert’s thinking said, it caused Boebert to dig in and more seriously entertain the possibility of a real conspiracy at play to cover up what is in the Epstein files.”

… NYT reporter Annie Karni on Boebert: “My understanding is that the relentless pressure campaign that has included carrot, stick, good cop, bad cop, has made her even more dug in, suspicious and convinced there’s a conspiracy at play.”

… Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI): “Why are these meetings happening in the Situation Room? Is this a national security matter? That is not my only question.”

… So if you’re Trump, what exactly do you say to Boebert when she asks you the reason why it is so important to you to hide the Epstein files from the public? Does he bother giving an explanation, or did he just skip directly to the threats?

… JD Vance posted this on Twitter on Sept 4, 2021: “Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail? And now we just don’t talk about it.”

… He has nothing to say about it now though.

… Mike Johnson to CNN on the Epstein bill: “We’re going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week.”

… Yes, they are taking more days off. You really can’t expect them to work two days in row, can you? We are heading into the holidays - have some compassion.

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA): “Next week we will be voting to release the Epstein files. I honestly believe it’s not only the right thing to do for the victims but it’s also the right thing to do for the country. Americans deserve transparency. There were only 4 Republicans that signed the discharge petition for the resolution to release the Epstein files. Massie, Greene, Mace, Boebert. Next week when everyone is forced to go on record to vote to release the files, I expect the number of Republicans to be a lot higher that actually vote yes. But remember the original 4.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on CNN: “The deal for Republicans on this vote is that Trump will protect you if you vote the wrong way. In other words, if you vote to cover up for pedophiles, you’ve got cover in Republican primary. But I would remind my colleagues that this vote is going to be on your record for longer than Trump is going to be president. And what are you going to do in 2028? And and 2030 when you’re in a debate, and they say, how can we trust you, you covered up for a pedophile back in 2025?”

… Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on why he refused to sign the petition: “What I’m afraid of is the politicians will be just taking advantage of these folks and putting out things, because everybody knows Jeffrey Epstein was a world class name dropper. Just because someone flew on his dadgum plane doesn’t mean they are a pedophile.”

… CNN’s Manu Raju asked Mike Johnson why he won’t vote for the bill to release the files: Q - “You said you’re for full transparency. So why not just vote for it? Johnson: It was not drafted in a way to protect victims. The discharge petition is not only reckless, it is also a totally moot point. The Oversight Committee has been working around the clock on this.”

… Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) responded to Johnson: “The former Dean of the Paul Pressler School of Law and former official in the Southern Baptist Convention (Mike Johnson) during a period of rampant sexual abuse has exactly ZERO life experience protecting victims. But he has a long history of protecting child predators.”

… Fox host Sean Hannity had progressive talk-show host and comedian Stephanie Miller on his show last night. It didn’t go exactly how he planned. Hannity: “When did you first notice Biden’s cognitive decline? Miller: I think it was through all of the times that Trump has fallen asleep in public and talked about magnets getting wet.”

… Hannity then asked Miller about a video showing her meeting Rep. Jasmine Crockett and kissing her feet: “Sean, it was a joke. But you know the funniest thing about his story? It’s that Trump is all over the Epstein files. I wonder if they are going to release that?”

… Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) posted this today on X: “Government is supposed to serve people, not feed on drama. Some push scandal because they have nothing else to offer.”

… Yes, she really posted that.

… MSNBC is reporting that Eric Swalwell is about to announce his candidacy for governor of California.

… Jamie Raskin on the bill allowing Republican senators to sue DOJ because Jack Smith subpoenaed their phone records (which were specifically limited to only the date, time and number called during a one-week period): “This is a great bill. A great bill that is, if you think 8 Republican US Senators should have a right to collect at least $1 million in a jackpot bonanza payoff from the taxpayers simply because they were subject to the exact same rules all other Americans were subject to and are subject to.”

… Rep. John Rose (R-TN): “I’m calling on these senators to disavow this, including my own senior senator from TN, Marsha Blackburn, who unfortunately apparently telegraphed yesterday that she’s planning to take advantage of this opportunity to put potentially millions of dollars in her pocket at the expense of the American taxpayer.”

… Rep. AOC: “It is unconscionable that what we are debating right now is legislation that will give 8 senators over $1 million a piece and we are robbing people of their food assistance and of their healthcare to pay for it. How is this even on the floor? How can we vote to enrich ourselves by stealing from the American people?”

… Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL): “Interesting seeing my colleagues express outrage over this provision yet still vote for it when they could have been strong and not let the Senate jam the House. There was no reason this needed to be in the bill to reopen the govt. The Senate used a crisis to pass an unethical provision and now the House is complicit. I could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for certain senators to enrich themselves by suing DOJ using taxpayer dollars. There is no reason the House should have been forced to eat this garbage.”

… Punchbowl: “Mike Johnson said he did not know about the provision that allows senators to sue for damages if they’re the subject of government surveillance.”

… Then, after the requisite period of time passed for Johnson to pretend not to know about the latest controversy again, there was this from Manu Raju: “Johnson tells me he will put bill on floor NEXT WEEK to repeal the DOJ provision from stopgap (on suspension). He also plans to personally lobby Senate Rs to take up that bill once it passes House. Asked if he’ll be urging senators to back it: ‘Yes, of course, I will.’”

… He will bring it to the floor of the House. It will pass the House. Then it will go to the senate and likely die. Unless the bipartisan outrage can be sustained as long as John Thune is going to drag it out before even thinking about setting it for a vote. They usually count on people forgetting these things since there are a dozen new outrages a day.

… Mike Johnson was asked if he was going to bring to bill to extend ACA subsidies to the floor of the House if it passes the Senate: “Am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer? We have a lot of work to do on that. The Republicans would demand a lot of reforms before anything like that was possible and we have to go through that process.”

… Like I said 5 minutes after the deal was announced, this will never come to the floor in the House. I said 0% chance. If there was a percentage less than 0, I would have said that.

… Trump was asked about his social media posts on health care: “We’re going to pay money to the people, they’re going to buy their own healthcare, and we’re going to forget this Obamacare madness. I am calling today for insurance companies not to be paid, and for this massive amount of money to be paid directly to the people of our country that they can buy their own health care.”

… Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) in a radio interview: “You’re gonna have to create high risk pools again. Just go back where Minnesota was before the ACA.”

… Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson: “Quiet Part Out Loud ALERT. GOP Whip says we should ‘just go back’ to before the ACA. That means no coverage for people with preexisting conditions, etc.”

… MN State Sen. Erin Murphy: “A high risk pool was necessary because people were denied coverage if they had a pre-existing condition. The ACA changed that, protecting family budgets and saving lives. No way are we going back to that.”

This is one of those monster Bulletins because I really tried my best to cover every possible angle of the latest on Epstein since the more we learn about this the worse it gets for Trump. But of course I couldn’t also neglect all the other news in the process.

MAGA has gone completely silent on this after screaming to have the files released for years. They really, truly thought their hero Trump was going to expose all the Democrats, Hollywood actors, and media elites in the Epstein case. But it never occurred to them that Trump might be the one actually implicated. I think they are just shell-shocked at this point and don’t know what to say. First time for that.

I did a deep dive on Epstein and all the other big stories going on right now yesterday on my weekly podcast Uncovered. A link to that is here. If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find that here.

… Sen. John Fetterman was on Morning Joe today. He was commiserating with Joe and Mika about how unfair people have been to them lately: “I know both of you have been punished for having these conversations, ongoing dialogue with President Trump. I got hit just to have dinner with him after he invited me to have that conversation. Pennsylvania keeps people honest.”

… A short time later, Fetterman’s office issued this statement: Statement from Sen. Fetterman’s Spokesperson: “During an early morning walk, Sen. Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in Braddock. Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh. Upon evaluation, it was established he had a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that led to Sen. Fetterman feeling light-headed, falling to the