The White House is planning to use the Epstein files against Democrats after they, in addition to several Republicans, successfully pressured lawmakers to vote to compel the Justice Department to release the remainder of the files against President Donald Trump’s wishes.
After both chambers of Congress agreed to send the Epstein Files Transparency Act to Trump’s desk, two unnamed White House officials indicated to Politico that they plan to draw attention to Democrats who communicated with or were associated with Epstein.
“Democrats only started talking about the Epstein files once they thought they could use it to score political points against President Trump,” an unnamed White House official told Politico. “That will prove to be a mistake for them.”
For months, Democrats have been using Trump’s refusal to release the documents about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to speculate that the president is hiding something or covering for someone. He has denied any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the late financier’s crimes.
By consistently drawing attention to the matter, Trump has been unable to escape “guilty-by-association” criticisms and eventually relented – giving House Republicans his blessing to vote to force the release of documents this week.
Now, the White House is gearing up to highlight high-profile Democrats who knew Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, who was a friend of Epstein’s but has strongly denied having knowledge of Epstein’s alleged child sex-trafficking crimes.
“The Democrats are going to come to regret this,” another unnamed White House official told the news outlet. “Let’s start with Stacey Plaskett. You think we’re not going to make a scene of this?”
Plaskett, a non-voting delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, texted with Epstein during a February 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing, and Epstein apparently advised her about which questions to ask the witness, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. That was revealed last week after the House released more than 20,000 pages of documents containing Epstein’s emails.
Plaskett confirmed she texted with Epstein, but said in a statement she had condemned his cimes, and that she received messages “from staff, constituents and the public at large offering advice, support and in some cases partisan vitriol, including from Epstein.”
Epstein’s island home, Little Saint James, is in the U.S. Virgin Islands meaning he was a constituent of Plaskett’s.
The delegate also defended herself, saying she had not engaged in any wrongdoing and that it was unknown at the time that Epstein was under federal investigation.
White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson raised questions about Plaskett and other Democrats in a statement and said Americans “deserve” an answer.
“Time for the media to start asking the real questions: why was Democrat Stacey Plaskett live texting Epstein in 2019 during a congressional hearing after he was a convicted sex offender and why did she accept thousands of dollars from him?” Jackson said.
Jackson added: “Why was Hakeem Jeffries soliciting donations from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender? Why did President Bill Clinton travel on Epstein’s plane 26 times? And why did one of Epstein’s victims write that she saw Clinton on Epstein’s island with two young women?”
The White House’s attempts to redirect attention from Trump’s ties to Epstein come after the president asked the Justice Department to specifically investigate the late convicted sex offender’s ties to prominent Democrats and financial institutions.
That includes Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman and J.P. Morgan Chase.
Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly agreed to Trump’s request, directing the U.S. Attorney in charge of the Southern District of New York to investigate Epstein’s involvement with the named entities.
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