Stephen Fowler

I'm Stephen Fowler.

I also cover politics.

It is first important to note that these are not the Epstein files that everybody is talking about in the same way.

As you mentioned, these are private files that the House Oversight Committee has obtained in batches using a subpoena from the Epstein estate.

That is different from the Department of Justice files on Epstein and his various criminal cases, his life, his death, and everything that came after.

So these are private files.

And on Wednesday, it started with House Democrats releasing three emails that show Jeffrey Epstein talking about Donald Trump.

And shortly thereafter, there were 20,000, the full batch, released by House Republicans who say that's not the full picture.

These emails are to and from Jeffrey Epstein and various powerful associates over the years.

And they were obtained by a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee from Epstein's estate.

Well, it's all new to a certain extent.

The three emails that House Democrats highlighted were very specific.

There was one email from 2011 where Epstein emailed Ghislaine Maxwell, his associate who's been convicted on trafficking charges.

They called Trump, quote, that dog that hasn't barked and says Trump spent hours at my house with one of the alleged sex trafficking victims.

There was a 2015 thread with author Michael Wolff

where Wolf suggested that Epstein could get, quote, valuable PR and political currency if Trump ever denied being on Epstein's plane or at his house.

There was a 2019 exchange where Epstein said that, of course, Trump knew about the girls as he asked Elaine to stop without the context.

A few of us also looked at the full 20,000 document tranche, and it revealed that Jeffrey Epstein was pretty obsessed with Donald Trump.

There were emails about Trump's coming and goings to the airport in Palm Beach that affected Epstein's travel, but there were a lot of correspondence tracking Trump's rise to the presidency and mocking various scandals.

Epstein pitched himself as somebody who could help explain Trump to everybody from the Russians to other powerful people, and there were other emails in there.