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By Jack Royston
Chief Royal Correspondent
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Ghislaine Maxwell's statement that she had never seen Donald Trump at Jeffrey Epstein's house has come under fresh scrutiny following the release of documents from Epstein's estate by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
Trump has been under mounting pressure over his friendship with Epstein since July when the Department of Justice and FBI released a memo stating there was no evidence of a blackmail operation by Epstein, no Epstein client list and there would be no further charges in the case. Administration officials had previously suggested they would release the Epstein files.
Now, more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein's estate have been released by the House Oversight Committee containing emails sent between Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Maxwell.
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Newsweek has contacted Maxwell's attorney in an email sent outside of regular working hours.
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Why It Matters
In the early stages of Trump's presidency, members of his administration appeared to stoke the flames of the Epstein scandal, suggesting there would be new releases and potentially even new names to emerge from a review ordered by the president.
"We have flight logs. We have information, names. That will come out," Alina Habba told Piers Morgan in February, when she was counselor to the president.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked on Fox News in February 2025 whether the Epstein client list would be released and said: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review."
The White House later said she was referring to the Epstein files as a whole but her words stoked the fire of the backlash that followed the DOJ memo in July.
Now, Congress is set to vote next week on whether to release the Epstein files despite Trump's repeated assertions that the scandal is a "hoax."
Jeffrey Epstein Calls Trump 'Dog That Hasn't Barked'
The emails appear to show that in April 2011, Epstein wrote to Maxwell: "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him."
The emails show Maxwell replied: "I have been thinking about that…"
The White House said the victim whose name was redacted was Virginia Giuffre who "repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever." Trump has always denied knowledge of Epstein's federal crimes.
The messages appear to cast doubt on Maxwell's own account in an interview with the DOJ conducted in July by Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general.
According to a transcript of the interview, Maxwell said: "I think they were friendly like people are in social settings. I don’t … I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of … I don’t recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance."
"I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting," she continued. "I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way.
"The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects."
The new email does not make clear whether Maxwell "witnessed" the president at Epstein's house but certainly suggests she may have known Trump had been there with Giuffre for hours and critics have said she did not disclose that to the DOJ.
What People Are Saying
Responding to the email release, author and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote on X that Ghislaine Maxwell "lied about Trump never going to Epstein's house (directly contradicted by her email correspondence with Epstein)."
Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told Sky News the email suggested Maxwell "either lied or didn't remember the truth" during her interview with Blanche.
"That 2011 email about the 'dog that has not barked' is pretty damning," he said. "In my training and experience, a potential cooperating co-defendant like Ghislaine Maxwell would be treated and should be treated like toxic waste: cabined, tightly contained, because they could destroy everything that surrounds them.
"It appears to me that, thus far, the Trump D.O.J. unlike every predecessor of both parties is acting to protect Donald Trump and his agenda as opposed to following the training and experience that has guided the United States Department of Justice for about 250 years."
Trump responded to the new emails on Truth Social: "The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the [government] Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap.
"The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price. There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!""
What Happens Next
House speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Wednesday that a bill compelling the release of the Epstein files would be put to the vote next week. Quoted by The Guardian, he said: "We are gonna put that on the floor for [a] full vote next week, [as] soon as we get back."
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