Trump latest: 'In effect, Epstein files have been released' - after 20,000 pages published

Hot on the heels of hearing from the White House, Donald Trump himself has now spoken up about the latest release of Epstein emails.

The US president claims that the "Jeffrey Epstein hoax" is a "trap" set by Democrats.

"Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap," he says in a post on Truth Social.

He adds:

"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!"

His message echoes what we heard from the press secretary  Karoline Leavitt just now - trying to keep the focus on the government shutdown, and not Epstein.

Read his full post here...

During his election campaign, Trump vowed to release the Epstein files in full, but since coming into office, has faced crticism over his transparency on the issue and his past connections to Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein appears to confirm Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had his picture taken with Virginia Giuffre, in one of the files newly released today.

Epstein claimed several of his staff had their picture taken with the former duke, according to the documents published today. 

In an email from Epstein to a reporter in July 2011, he said: 

"Now that strauss kan (sic) girl will be shown to be a total liar.

"Maybe your paper should jump on and show that (redacted)'s allegations re andrew (sic) are the same, she also accused numerous people of having sex with her, dersh, ehud, etc. 

"Not one paper had the balls to question her credibility."

After the journalist confirmed they would be interested in the story, a further email from Epstein on the same day read: 

"The girl has fled the country with an outstanding arrest warrant. The da (sic) after she accused others, said in writing that she has no credibility, she was never 15 years old working for me, her story made it seem like she first worked for trump (sic) at that age and was met by ghislaine maxwell (sic).

"Total horseshit, the daily mail (sic) paid her money, they admitted it, with the statement that it took money to coax out the truth.

"Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew, as many of my employees have.

"I have never misled you, this girl is a total liar, they (sic) authorities should check her australian (sic) immigration form, you could talk to dershowitz (sic). I will ask if they will cooperate – Prince people."

Andrew, the King's brother, continues to face scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein but has always vigorously denied all the accusations against him in relation to the deceased paedophile.

In an infamous Newsnight interview, Andrew said a photo showing him with Giuffre wasn't genuine.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wasn't just fighting fires about the Epstein files from reporters at her briefing just now.

In her first question, she was asked about Donald Trump's threat to sue BBC News for $1bn if it doesn't meet his demands over a misleading documentary of a speech he gave before the Capitol riots on January 6 2021.

Leavitt started off by talking up the positive relationship between Trump and Sir Keir Starmer.

She said the BBC being a "fair news organisation" is something the two leaders disagree on, though. 

Instead, Leavitt described the BBC as a "leftist propaganda machine".

She added:

"The president was deeply concerned by the editing, the purposeful and dishonest editing... that was so clearly fake news... this is a classic example of that."

Then, on Trump's legal threat to the BBC, Leavitt added: "We expect it to continue and whether they apologise or not is up to them."

Trump's lawyers gave the BBC until 10pm UK time on Friday to respond.

Tap below to catch up on our recent coverage of the BBC crisis...

In the news conference which has just wrapped up, Karoline Leavitt is asked whether Donald Trump is considering pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 63-year-old was sentenced in 2022 for sex trafficking. She recruited young girls for her former boyfriend, billionaire paedophile Epstein, during the 1990s and early 2000s.

In response, Leavitt says:

"It's not something he's talking about or even thinking about at this moment in time."

Karoline Leavitt is now answering the first question on the Epstein files release.

A reporter asks Leavitt to comment on the substance of the emails released by the House Democrats and to clarify whether the president "spent hours" with an Epstein victim, as one email alleged.

Leavitt basically repeats what she said in her earlier formal statement.

"These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," she says.

She adds: "What President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach, and so was Jeffrey Epstein. 

"Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-A-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile, and he was a creep." 

Leavitt also repeats that Virginia Giuffre, whom she identifies as the previously redacted victim referred to in the email, had maintained "there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed" around Donald Trump.

He had always been "extremely professional and friendly to her", Leavitt quotes Giuffre as saying. 

Leavitt adds: "So I think it's a question worth asking the Democrat Party... of why they chose to redact that name of a victim, who has already publicly made statements about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein."

Watch her speaking here...

Karoline Leavitt now addresses the other big US news story of the night: the vote on the funding bill in the US House of Representatives, that will pave the way for ending the longest government shutdown in American history if passed.

"The White House is very hopeful that this shutdown is going to come to an end tonight," Leavitt says.

She then goes on to list the damage and "massive pain" that the 43-day shutdown has caused, which, she claimed, was "entirely" the Democrats' fault.

If passed, Trump is slated to sign the funding bill that would end the shutdown later tonight, Leavitt adds.

We're hearing from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt now.

She starts by ceding the stage to FBI director Kash Patel, who has recently travelled to China and is now sharing an announcement on fentanyl trafficking.

The White House seems determined not to let today's release of Epstein files dominate... but we'll bring you Leavitt's responses to questions from the press soon.

As we're waiting for Karoline Leavitt to start the briefing, Donald Trump has dropped his first Truth Social posts since the files started dropping earlier today.

Notably, he is not addressing the latest Epstein release and instead announced the nomination of three judges to district courts in Alaska, Arkansas and Texas.

Karoline Leavitt is about to take the stage in the White House press briefing room for the government's regular news conference.

It's all but certain that White House correspondents will quiz her on tonight's Epstein file releases.

You can follow the briefing in the stream at the top of the page.

If you want to re-read Leavitt's previous statement, check our post at 15.47.

We can now bring you a little more information about what is in the huge batch of Epstein files that the Republicans have released, in response to the three emails leaked by Democrats earlier today.

Our US correspondent Mark Stone is among those currently trawling through the 20,000 pages.

"In effect, the Epstein files, as they have become known, appear today to have been released," he summarised. 

"Maybe not all of them, but a huge number."

Stone also summarised some of the findings so far:

• In terms of content, the files contain emails, publicly available articles that were sent to and fro between Epstein and his associates, images, and a few videos;
• There has been at least one email from former British ambassador Peter Mandelson that "certainly suggests again a close relationship" between him and Epstein;
• The former prince Andrew has been referenced, as well as Donald Trump;
• There are also other emails from and to the author, Michael Wolff. One carries the subject line "Heads up" and says: "If he [apparently referring to Trump] says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency."

Watch Mark Stone's full analysis below...

Donald Trump has always denied any wrongdoing, or knowing about any wrongdoing, in relation to Epstein.

Peter Mandelson was sacked by Keir Starmer as the UK's ambassador to the US earlier this year over his connections to Epstein. In May this year, Paste BN asked Lord Mandelson if he did stay at Epstein's flat, to which he replied: "I'm not answering any questions about him. My knowledge of him is something I regret, I wish I'd never met him in the first place." 

Andrew, the King's brother, continues to face scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein but has always vigorously denied all the accusations against him in relation to the deceased paedophile.