Trump is in the Epstein emails: He 'knew,' spent 'hours' with victim

0:00I'm Cindy Lauper with fellow Cosentix advocate, Chef Michelle Bernstein. We'll share our experiences with plaque psoriasis, with psoriatic arthritis, and Dr. Panico will talk about the possible connection. Cosentix secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis 300 milligram dose and adults with active psoriatic arthritis 150 milligram dose. Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentix. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections.

0:35Some are fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough. Had a vaccine or planned to. Or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen. Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTICS or cosentics.com slash Cindy. Have you been to Burlington? Our stores are looking hot for the summer. They had a glow up, so you need to show up to save on the latest trends. From dresses and sandals to swim in beauty, Burlington has something to make every moment of the summer one to remember.

1:16Why choose just one style? With our prices, just get it all. Your summer deal light starts here. Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melber. We begin with the bombshell confirmation, the revelations in this ongoing Trump-Epstein scandal. Donald Trump is in the Epstein emails. As Nicole Wallace and I were just discussing, that is now confirmed prior to this. Responsible people, lawyers who deal in evidence, journalists who deal with what we know and don't know, weren't saying that yet. Other people have said all kinds of things, by the way, on both sides of this. But what you see on your screen, our headline here, is the first time this has been reported and confirmed with receipts because Epstein himself emailed about Trump.

2:07We have this from Congress. These are damning emails where Epstein says, this is his view, what he alleges, that Donald Trump knew of Epstein's conduct. He sent an email in 2019, revealed for the first time ever today, so long after his death. we now learn that he says, of course, Trump knew about, quote, the girls. Now, that is a major statement. The context of it is what lawyers and investigators would call more credible because it was made privately in a in a secret manner that he thought would stay secret. And if you're saying, okay, Ari, but now it's on the news. Now it's in other people's hands.

2:45Yeah. Years later and after he died. This statement he made stayed secret all that time through the probe and through his own death. So what they thought would stay secret did stay secret for a long time. And while Donald Trump vowed to release exactly this type of material, the emails or files in government possession, he broke that vow. And it's only the dogged pursuit of investigative reporters. We have a key one coming up and government officials and in the independent branch of Congress, where Democrats with some Republicans, I should note, have been pushing to release the files. We'll get into what it means, whether you call it files or emails, transfer of documents, data.

3:22But these emails are some of the most newsworthy because they involve the now deceased Epstein trafficker talking to the now incarcerated Epstein co-conspirator, Maxwell. In that email, he says, Trump also asked Maxwell, that's Ghislaine Maxwell, to stop, which seems to be a reference to a public fallout that we have seen. That Trump and Epstein were close. They would socialize together. We've linked them in public reporting before, separate from what's in the files. We knew that they publicly appeared together. That was in the 2000s and later had this falling out. Epstein says Trump asked him to basically resign or leave Mar-a-Lago, but Epstein insists he wasn't formally a member.

4:03Now, Trump had claimed that he banned Epstein from the resort after basically a dispute over people who work there. That's one way to put it. Others have questioned what it meant that they basically, quote, took people that worked for me and what kind of pressure and scrutiny that puts on both men and the people in their employ. Another Epstein email from 2011, newly revealed today for the first time, is the bombshell. It is redacted with the word victim, and I want to draw your attention to exactly what it says. Epstein is emailing secretly to Maxwell, later convicted for his sex trafficking ring, that Trump had spent hours at his house, hours at Epstein's house with and redacted by the government.

4:47We just see the word victim. That's the individual name. The White House isn't denying that that was a victim. I'll get to that today. But basically, this is the now revealed claim. The emails do not dictate a kind of specific misconduct by Trump, although they say he knew about the, quote, girls. And if you take the term girls literally, combined with what Maxwell was convicted of and a heck of a lot of other reporting, the allegation from Epstein, now deceased, is that Trump knew about what girls, what minors, what females under 18 were doing, a type of wrongdoing. This is a huge deal. Trump spent hours with redacted victim.

5:25Trump knew what was going on. And remember, Trump claimed repeatedly last year, and his attorney general claimed this year, they would release the Epstein files. Now, people can debate what that term means. It's not a term you can just define in a dictionary or in any government handbook. Some people use it to mean what they believe to be a kind of secret pile of documents that the DOJ has. Other people mean just any material that's secret that could come out. The Epstein estate clearly has some of this material, which is how it got to Congress. I will tell you in our special report why the DOJ most probably has it.

6:00Now, the Trump link to Epstein has been documented. But this is the first time we have seen Epstein in his own now deceased hand put on paper or email, put down as a record what he thought Trump did and knew. And Maxwell responds back. And again, they thought this was secret. This is considered credible evidence. It's the kind of damning material that you can understand why Trump would want to keep secret. And that is clear, even apart from whether it rises to a legal level that investigators or federal prosecutors would look at. And when I say investigators, I mean they would have to investigate it.

6:38We're not saying, we're not reporting that these references reach the bar of opening a criminal probe. But if you think back outside of the Trump era to just normal political times, being even linked this way to a convicted sex trafficker like Maxwell and the deceased accused sex trafficker Epstein, he just wasn't tried because he died in prison. This is a huge bombshell in and of itself. And there's more coming, according to at least a slim majority of the current Congress. Because late today, the House finally swore in Congresswoman Ghalva. This was after Mike Johnson had used the shutdown to delay this for 50 days.

7:20And that sets in motion what Democrats, with some Republicans, say are enough votes to override the Johnson-Trump secrecy agenda and get more Epstein materials released. So the vote is more relevant now than ever. You have this shocking new evidence. You have a Trump scandal that has been growing over time, not diminishing. And you have the administration, the Trump White House, basically saying, well, the Democrats selectively leaked a couple emails and that they're trying to, quote, smear Donald Trump. What's interesting about that is they are the ones who had long called to release the emails.

7:57I'll show you more on that. In addition, things are happening. We talk about sometimes nothing happening in Congress. Well, today, Republican lawmakers responded to Democrats and how they'd use their power, getting up off the mat here and doing something. And Republicans responded by doing more, which interestingly also hurts the Trump White House, releasing about 20 ,000 other documents from the Epstein estate. We have reporters sifting through those here. I can tell you a lot of folks in Washington and media, in law, and certainly in politics are sifting through those. Now let me turn to Trump's broken promise.

8:30Trump is in the Epstein emails, yet he campaigned on this kind of transparency, releasing these emails and even more. And then after being sworn in, his attorney general, Bondi, promised to release more Epstein material. The list of clients that went to the island has not been made public. So if you were able to, you'll be... Yeah, I'd certainly take a look at it. Would you declassify the Epstein files? Yeah, yeah, I would. Will that really happen? It's sitting on my desk right now. And she would go on to vow to release what she said was sitting on her desk. She talked about a client list. And then later, and this is what caused such a MAGA uproar, A.G.

9:10Bondi, under Trump, DOJ, said there was nothing more to release at all. And said there was no possible blackmail. One of the other emails to a writer talks about that, although it doesn't confirm it. So what we have is Donald Trump and his top DOJ official claiming they would do part of what's happening today. And now that it's happening today, over their objections, they're saying this is bad. And that's why this story, although it starts with the victims, and we've had victims on this program, we have a Miami Herald reporter coming up who started all this work long before it was a political football.

9:46And that matters. This also matters because it is a kind of an illustration of the most important problem with the way Donald Trump is governing right now. MAGA people notice it on some topics, other people notice it on other topics, but whether he's campaigning on lower prices or Epstein transparency, once in office, he not only turns to other issues, but lies about these things. And so depending on which issue you care about, you start to notice it. Donald Trump has been criticized more on this issue from the right than probably any other thing we can measure this year, and today shows those criticisms were on the right track, that he was acting guilty because he's in the files and that when he attacked the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch and other outlets for reporting, that he was linked to Epstein, that he wrote him a birthday card, that Pam Bondi said he was in the files or the emails.

10:34He's in the emails. We have that today. And we've shown you that Trump and Epstein have a long, detailed, repeating history. We documented it in these two timelines, their relationship on the jet and the parties And as you see over to the right, a lengthy case timeline where we showed some of these conflicts of interest. You got the parties in New York. You got Mar-a-Lago. You got video of them looking like two guys who definitely enjoyed each other's company. And yes, they claimed a later falling out. Trump is trying to downplay what actually happened. He has sued the Wall Street Journal because they published evidence, corroboration.

11:12That birthday card was later leaked by, do you remember where it came? Where it came from? The Epstein mistake. In law, they call this a chain of custody, that when you have material and it goes from, say, the original source, literally Epstein's home, out to another reputable source, say, prosecutors of the government or Congress, that's the chain of custody. That authenticates the material. It looks like Donald Trump and some people around him knew he was in these emails, knew about this birthday card, if he wrote it and signed it. And Pam Bondi, according to reporting that Trump objected to, warned him and said, maybe it's better to take the political hit for breaking the campaign vow or looking like you were misleading or lying than take the hit for being in the emails.

11:58But look what's happened. Now they've taken the hit for both. And the story is not over. This is a matter of significant interest. We're seeing it today since the emails dropped at every major news site, in local papers, not just the politically obsessed national ones. and you can see it in El Pais and international news, all from when it broke today. This is the one story that President Trump cannot run from. Now, he has deflected. He has misled. And only he knows what he knows. Only he knows what he did and why they had the falling out. Only he knows what he remembers he knew at the time about whether there was an awareness of a level of operational sex trafficking.

12:44that he objected to, which could go in his favor. In fairness, if the email is correct, that he objected to it and told Maxwell about it and they both remembered it, that's one thing in his favor. But how did he know so much about it and why did he mislead about it after the fact? And when he was running on vowing transparency, what was he planning? And when Pam Bondi, according to reporting, said, you're in these files and emails, then what did they do? Why does the cover-up look so bad? And is this just it? In other words, is it just these emails? Or what else is in the DOJ, files, and other places in the government?

13:21These are big questions. Today is a breakthrough. And there are some people who look up these days, and every time they see a breakthrough, they say, well, will anything change? Does it matter? Will there be accountability? But this is the kind of story, particularly with heat from the right to the left, and now a looming vote to get more files. That has a lot of momentum. I've got the New York Times' Michelle Goldberg and a women's rights advocate and attorney, Nancy Erica Smith. Join me when we're back in 90 seconds.

13:51Most ice cream is good, but not Jenny's. Jenny's ice cream is more like an obsession. What you get from over two decades of tasting and tweaking and throwing it out and starting over, chasing flavors until they feel alive. That might sound crazy, and that's because it is. Jenny's. Often imitated, never duplicated, always splendid. I'm Cindy Lauper with fellow Cosentix advocate, Chef Michelle Bernstein. We'll share our experiences with plaque psoriasis, with psoriatic arthritis, and Dr. Panico will talk about the possible connection. Cosentix Secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis 300 milligram dose and adults with active psoriatic arthritis 150 milligram dose.

14:39Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentix. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal or viral infections. Some are fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. had a vaccine or planned to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTICS or cosentics.com slash Cindy. Have you been to Burlington?

15:17Our stores are looking hot for the summer. They had a glow-up, so you need to show up to save on the latest trends. From dresses and sandals to swim and beauty, Burlington has something to make every moment of the summer one to remember. Why choose just one style? With our prices, just get it all. Your summer deal light starts here. Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow.

15:46My overall take on this, Batya, is... Why didn't Trump just release these? Just release them. Just release them, right? Like now he's in a position of being like singled out as the only one, allegedly, as opposed to one of a slew of names. The Democrats, of course, are going to make a ton of hay over it. And I don't know that there's any there there whatsoever, but I concede that they sound bad. Megyn Kelly says it sounds bad and Trump was basically wrong in his failure to release this. We are joined now by New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who has reported on this story extensively, and Nancy Erica Smith, a women's rights advocate, civil rights attorney who's represented victims of sexual harassment in the workplace and other contexts.

16:28Welcome to both of you. Michelle, he's in the emails. Surprise. Surprise to you, or irony. This looks bad as is, and they're fighting to stop the next round of release, which suggests that they, this is how fairly I can say it. They, the Trump folks, do not think this is it, because if they thought the next House vote and the next round of emails was about everybody but him, then they would stop fighting. Today, they're still fighting. Right. And they're also I mean, I think we also have to see this story in the context of another big story from this week, which is the House getting this whistleblowers report from the jail or from the prison that Jelaine Maxwell is in.

17:11Right. So Jamie Raskin releases this whistleblower's report saying that she's getting kind of extreme special treatment. I can't actually say the word, I think, on air, but the prison official said that they were tired of being her essentially servant. And so why? Why is she? And this is while she's working on her clemency petition. Why is she you know, why is she moved to this prison where sex traffickers are not typically allowed? And why is she being treated in this extraordinary way at the same time? I'll jump in and I'll let you finish. The question is, why is the Trump DOJ nicer to someone who helps pedophiles than the victims?

17:49Right. And I think that one of the questions now from these emails, I mean, to me, the most intriguing phrase in these emails was when Jeffrey Epstein said to Jillian Maxwell, Trump is the dog that didn't bark. And we don't know exactly what he means by that, but it seems as if they don't want her to be able to answer that question. There's that email. Nancy, go ahead. Well, I agree. And God knows Todd Blanche didn't ask that question. And we don't know what he had access to. When you have a DOJ and U.S. attorneys that are populated by unqualified people who have represented Trump. And Todd Blanche is.

18:29And he's the second in command at the DOJ. So you're referring to Trump's personal attorney. Yeah, he's a he's a Trump attorney who then. Yeah, he has this big role and he goes in. And you're saying if he were sitting with somebody and trying to do the facts. Right. And they said, oh, nothing with Trump. And they're the co-conspirator. Then he'd say, well, what about this email, which the DOJ should have? They search the emails and say, well, you said here, they spent hours together. Right. Instead, it sounded like a cocktail party conversation among friends. And I've taken a lot of depositions.

18:58That's not what a deposition looks like. And we already knew what the evidence was against Maxwell. She was tried in front of a jury and found guilty. So why are we meeting with her? And now we're giving her a puppy. It's outrageous. And Republicans on the Hill, like Megyn Kelly, are not saying, oh, it's all fine. They're finding different ways to at least try to split the difference. Take a listen.

19:26I am for transparency. I do think this was our disaster for the White House. This was a self-inflicted wound by the White House and how they handled this. and I think they've dug those cells a hole. Any information that's released has to be taken seriously. The American people deserve clarity on this issue. I think we need to get that information out. I think transparency is important. So, Nancy, when you look at the emails themselves, I walked through them, how credible are they? For example, as compared to something that comes out later or when someone's in a different posture, these look very credible because they were secret communications back in the day.

20:03These are incredibly credible. These emails mean what they say. They're not created for somebody to see someday. They're not created after Trump is president. Some of them, some of the Michael Wolff ones. Right, the older ones, yep. On the road, but the ones between Maxwell and Epstein himself, admitting that he knew about the girls. Let's talk about what maybe he was complaining to Maxwell about. They were stealing girls from Mar-a-Lago. Trump, all of Trump's properties hire very young women. I've sued his property in New Jersey. All of the hires are very young women. The waitresses, the spa people who Ms.

20:47Gouffre was. So was he upset about having it stolen? He also owned a modeling agency and a teen pageant. The fact that somebody with those inclinations and the statements he makes about young girls, which are incredibly creepy, makes you wonder about his relationship with a pedophile. Well, yeah. And as we know, Trump, I mean, the contestants in the teen pageant accused Donald Trump of walking in on them. And part of what is so weird about this story is that these revelations are at once shocking and not at all surprising. Right. At this point, you would have to come up with a very bizarre conspiracy theory to create an innocent explanation for all this.

21:34But I also think that when Republicans say that this is all, you know, a PR disaster, that the problem is that they handled this poorly. We don't know that that's true because we don't know if what's in the files that they're refusing to release is much worse than what they've already released, in which case it makes perfect sense that, you know, even today that you basically have a whole of government approach to trying to keep these things away from the public. There was reporting today that they were calling Lauren Boeber, one of the Republicans who signed this discharge petition in the House, that they were calling her into the situation room.

22:10I mean, imagine this use of a situation room. Right. To give the input. Let's look. This is your paper on the news side. They say Trump ramps up pressure to GOP to thwart Epstein vote. As you say, this representatives who she had pressed for more Epstein disclosure, summoned for a meeting in the White House Situation Room with top Justice Department FBI officials. You're saying that alone is suspicious and possibly using those officials for a cover-up rather than law enforcement. Well, I think it's clearly a cover-up. I mean, they're clearly, it's not secret that they are using all the power at their disposal to keep this material secret.

22:46Yeah, and I want to play on that point what the deputy attorney general said. Nancy, we try to cover things fairly. So if they just do normal stuff, we can report it. This was completely abnormal, sending in anyone to go talk to this convict, his co-conspirator, let alone the deputy AG. And they didn't include the people on the case. There were nonpartisan professionals in the case. So this is what Blanche said. Take a listen.

23:15this is uh oh i'm sorry you know what can we pull it up and then i'm gonna pull this up this is later that i was gonna get to after the break but let's right let's pull this up as a full screen i'll just read it to you he says i asked her questions i believe all of us wanted answered and she answered them she answered them the point of the interview was not for me to pressure test every answer she gave he says the point of the interview was to allow her to speak which nobody done before uh this is what he told cnn my mistake because it's not actually video what i want to do You look gobsmacked.

23:44Right. But that looks worse now that we have the evidence. We didn't have it then. And so I want you to get your fact check of that when we come back. Great. Right after this.

23:55We're back with Michelle Goldberg and lawyer Nancy Erica Smith. As promised, Nancy is going to give us a breakdown on how these emails show that Trump knew about Epstein's conduct. That's according to the Epstein email. Trump's COJ did an unusual interview with Maxwell. and didn't ask obvious questions or, and this is new today, use basic corroboration of exactly this evidence. These revelations show how former Trump criminal defense attorney and now number two at DOJ, Mr. Blanche, how they operated. You have this 2011 email. Epstein writes that this redacted victim spent hours at Epstein's house with Trump.

24:36Maxwell says, I've been thinking about that. And yet Blanche failed to use or reference basic evidence. Prosecutors pull emails, texts and a heck of a lot more. So while I can't tell you what's in the DOJ's evidence room because they haven't released it, I can tell you this is exactly the kind of thing they would have and they failed to use. Take a listen. Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world? Absolutely never. In any context. Okay, so Trump's former lawyer, this is where all norms have been breached, all norms.