--- title: White House Scrambles on Epstein Emails description: Trump officials met in the White House Situation Room Wednesday with Lauren Boebert about her push for the Epstein files. canonical: https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/ author: Brian Bennett article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-11-12T21:20:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T08:12:54.139Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Presses Republicans to Block Vote on Epstein Files Release og:description: Trump officials met in the White House Situation Room Wednesday with Lauren Boebert about her push for the Epstein files. og:url: https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b09a1463674b2a/6998cb90a97fc00787a74de0/GettyImages-2246387169.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Speaks To The Media og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Presses Republicans to Block Vote on Epstein Files Release twitter:description: Trump officials met in the White House Situation Room Wednesday with Lauren Boebert about her push for the Epstein files. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b09a1463674b2a/6998cb90a97fc00787a74de0/GettyImages-2246387169.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Presses House Republicans to Stop Vote on Epstein Files Release > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2d79c02a-e6fb-4a95-81ea-a47b82a0efcb&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Newly-Surfaced Emails From Epstein Allege Trump Knew of His Conduct, as House Set to Vote on Files Release [Watch (HLS stream): Newly-Surfaced Emails From Epstein Allege Trump Knew of His Conduct, as House Set to Vote on Files Release](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zj2UqioJ.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2025-11-12. Emails released by the House Democrats on Wednesday show the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alleging that President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of them. Trump has long denied having any prior knowledge of Epstein’s conduct. Members of the House returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, setting the stage for a key vote to compel the release of all the government’s files related to Epstein after weeks of delays from Speaker Mike Johnson._  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Nov 12, 2025 9:20 PM UTC Emails released by the House Democrats on Wednesday show the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alleging that President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of them. Trump has long denied having any prior knowledge of Epstein’s conduct. Members of the House returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, setting the stage for a key vote to compel the release of all the government’s files related to Epstein after weeks of delays from Speaker Mike Johnson.  by [Brian Bennett](https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME. Nov 12, 2025 9:20 PM UTC President Donald Trump and his top officials spent Wednesday scrambling to defend him against damaging [emails](https://time.com/7333256/epstein-emails-trump-takeaways/) from the estate of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and head off efforts in the House to push for the release of additional files from Epstein’s prosecution. Early on Wednesday, House Democrats released emails from Epstein that alleged Trump spent time with [one of Epstein’s victims](http://time.com/7333355/virginia-giuffre-jeffrey-epstein-donald-trump-emails/). The bombshell messages came hours before House Speaker Mike Johnson was set to swear in Rep.-elect [Adelita Grijalva](https://time.com/7323800/adelita-grijalva-congress-swearing-in-delay-mike-johnson-shutdown-epstein/) of Arizona, who is poised to be the needed 218th vote on a [discharge petition](https://time.com/7314260/epstein-files-congress-victims-release/) forcing a House vote on the Epstein files. The petition has already been signed by most House Democrats and a small group of Republicans including Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Rep. Nancy Mace of North Carolina. By midday Wednesday, Trump officials had met in the White House Situation Room with Boebert who has demanded Trump open up the Epstein files. The meeting inside the underground Situation Room was to talk to Boebert about her concerns around the Epstein files, said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” Leavitt said Wednesday. Leavitt refused to give more details about what officials told Boebert, or why the meeting was held in the Situation Room, which is typically used for secret national security planning. “I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room,” Leavitt said. Trump, who was previously a friend of Epstein’s, told reporters on Air Force One in July that Epstein “stole” female workers away from Mar-a-Lago and “we threw him out.” Leavitt said that the emails made public on Wednesday back up Trump’s claims. “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong,” she said. The emails made Epstein a [major topic of conversation](https://time.com/7333256/epstein-emails-trump-takeaways/) as House Republicans were preparing to vote on a bill that would end the government shutdown. Trump described the release of the emails as a ploy by Democrats to distract from the economic damage they caused by holding up government funding over extending federal health insurance subsidies. Trump said House Republicans should not vote to release more files. “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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. ## Transcript [00:00] We're going to get the 218 signature today. [00:02] That means by early December, [00:04] we're going to get a full vote on the Epstein filed. [00:07] And today, there were bombshell emails that came [00:10] out showing that Jeffrey Epstein [00:13] and Ghislaine Maxwell were had [00:15] emails about Donald Trump's [00:17] knowledge of what was going on. [00:19] So we need a full release of the files. [00:21] Finally, that's going to happen. [00:22] I mean, it's not surprising. [00:24] I mean, this is this is a world [00:25] that he was very much part of. [00:27] It's not clear to [00:28] what extent he was a part of that world. [00:30] But like, you know, they interacted with each other. [00:32] They seemed to be friends. [00:33] The guy who sort of let Epstein [00:35] off ended up in Trump's cabinet. [00:37] So it's not surprising at all [00:39] that there's more information that connects these two. [00:42] My sense is that it helps with [00:44] the ongoing interest and transparency. [00:46] Like most people want to see, uh, [00:49] full transparency and the fact [00:51] that days after Trump was [00:54] named was told he was in the Epstein files, [00:57] he then went and [00:58] fired these prosecutors who were are handling [01:01] the case at DOJ and [01:02] remove them from the building and their offices. [01:04] And it raises these questions like, [01:06] did they do that to take the documents? [01:09] And if so, what happens when [01:12] we vote for the release of the FBI files? [01:14] Are they going to be able to produce it all? [01:16] Why not release these files [01:18] when Democrats were in power before, [01:21] and why not before the election? [01:22] Well, obviously I don't know what you know, [01:24] what was there, but that's a good question, [01:25] because I also think that during the last administration, [01:28] all the files should have been released. [01:29] And so I would love to ask Merrick Garland and others, [01:32] why wasn't all why weren't [01:35] all these files released when we [01:36] had them in our possession? [01:37] What I know today is that Donald Trump is a president, [01:39] and he campaigned on releasing [01:41] all the FBI files, obsessed about it. [01:43] His vice president obsessed about it. [01:45] And now the white House [01:47] is involved in a massive cover up. [01:48] And we want to know why won't they release the files? [01:50] All of this can get solved right [01:52] now if they release all the files. [01:54] Did the president ever spend hours at [01:56] Jeffrey Epstein's house with a victim? [01:58] Uh, these emails prove absolutely nothing [02:01] other than the fact that [02:02] President Trump did nothing wrong. [02:05] And what President Trump has always said is that [02:07] he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein. [02:10] Jeffrey Epstein was a member at [02:12] Mar a Lago until President Trump kicked him out, [02:15] because Jeffrey Epstein was [02:16] a pedophile and he was a creep. [02:18] In this email you refer to with the name of a victim that [02:22] was unredacted now and [02:24] has since been reported on in this room. [02:26] So I will go ahead and say it. [02:27] Virginia Guthrie. [02:28] And it was CBS's own reporting, [02:30] Ouija, that recently wrote that Miss Guthrie maintained, [02:34] and God rest her soul, [02:35] that she maintained that there was [02:37] nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, [02:39] that President Trump was always extremely [02:41] professional and friendly to her. [02:43] And so I think it's a question [02:44] worth asking the Democrat Party. [02:46] And you should all go ask them after [02:48] this briefing of why they chose to redact [02:50] that name of a victim who has already publicly made [02:52] statements about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, [02:55] is in is unfortunately no longer with us. [02:57] This administration has done more with respect to [03:00] transparency when it comes to [03:02] Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever. [03:05] In fact, this administration, the Department of Justice, [03:08] has turned over tens of thousands [03:10] of documents to the American people. [03:13] We are cooperating and showing [03:14] support for the House Oversight Committee. [03:17] That's part of the reason you are seeing [03:18] these documents that were released today [03:20] because of the House oversight committees and [03:22] Republicans efforts to get these out to the public. [03:25] This administration also moved. [03:27] The Department of Justice also moved to [03:28] unseal grand jury testimony, which we know. [03:31] Unfortunately, a judge declined those those requests. [03:35] So this administration has done more than any. [03:37] And it just shows how this is truly [03:39] a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party. [03:42] For now, they're talking about it all of a [03:44] sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office. [03:47] But when Joe Biden was sitting in there, [03:49] the Democrats never brought this up. [03:50] This wasn't an issue that they cared about because they [03:53] actually don't care about the victims in these cases. [03:55] They care about trying to score [03:57] political points against President Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/"},"headline":"Trump Presses House Republicans to Stop Vote on Epstein Files Release","datePublished":"2025-11-12T21:20:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T08:12:54.139Z","description":"Trump officials met in the White House Situation Room with a House member about the Epstein files","url":"https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/","keywords":["Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b09a1463674b2a/6998cb90a97fc00787a74de0/GettyImages-2246387169.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is a former senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9b09a1463674b2a/6998cb90a97fc00787a74de0/GettyImages-2246387169.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Speaks To The Media","caption":"White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Speaks To The Media","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/","name":"Trump Presses House Republicans to Stop Vote on Epstein Files Release"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Newly-Surfaced Emails From Epstein Allege Trump Knew of His Conduct, as House Set to Vote on Files Release","description":"Emails released by the House Democrats on Wednesday show the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alleging that President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with one of them. 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