The White House unleashed a blistering response Wednesday to a Democratic-led document dump from the House Oversight Committee, accusing lawmakers of a “smear campaign” aimed at President Donald Trump amid escalating tensions over the Jeffrey Epstein files. In a pointed statement, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt identified the unnamed victim referenced in a newly released 2011 email from Epstein — who allegedly “spent hours” with Trump at the financier’s Palm Beach mansion — as Virginia Giuffre, the late Epstein survivor who repeatedly insisted the president had done nothing wrong during their limited interactions.

The revelation came hours after Democrats selectively released three Epstein emails mentioning Trump, sparking immediate backlash from Republicans and the administration. One email, dated April 2, 2011, from Epstein to his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, reads: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. virginia spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. police chief.” Democrats redacted the victim’s name, fueling speculation, but Leavitt fired back, calling it a deliberate ploy to “create a fake narrative” and distract from the ongoing government shutdown fight.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025 at age 41, became one of Epstein’s most vocal accusers after alleging she was trafficked as a teenager in the 1990s and early 2000s. In her posthumously published memoir “Nobody’s Girl,” released earlier this year, she detailed encounters with high-profile figures but explicitly cleared Trump of misconduct. “Trump couldn’t have been friendlier,” Giuffre wrote, recounting a brief meeting at Mar-a-Lago where he offered her babysitting job leads but showed no interest in Epstein’s illicit activities. She emphasized that Trump was “not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever” and described their time together as innocuous, limited to social settings without any pressure or impropriety.

The emails, part of a larger trove exceeding 20,000 pages from Epstein’s estate, paint a complex picture of the disgraced financier’s ties to Trump, whom he knew socially in the 1990s and early 2000s through Palm Beach circles. A second 2011 message from Epstein to Maxwell alluded to Trump asking her to “stop” certain behaviors, while a 2019 self-note claimed Trump “knew about the girls” but “never got a massage.” Yet, Leavitt stressed in her briefing that these were Epstein’s unverified ramblings, not evidence of complicity. “The fact remains that President Trump banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago decades ago after learning he was a creep to female employees, including Giuffre,” she said, referencing Trump’s 2007 ouster of Epstein from the club.

Trump himself dismissed the release as a “hoax” on Truth Social, posting: “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects.” The timing — just as House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed a bill to avert a prolonged federal closure — amplified White House claims of political sabotage. Trump signed the measure later Wednesday, averting shutdown until January, but not before lashing out at “bad-faith efforts” from the minority party.

Republicans on the Oversight Committee, led by Chair James Comer, retaliated by dumping the full 23,000-page cache, accusing Democrats of “cherry-picking” inflammatory snippets for “clickbait.” The broader release includes mundane estate inventories, legal memos, and Epstein’s musings on figures like Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, but no bombshells implicating Trump in Epstein’s crimes. Comer called the Democratic move “a desperate distraction,” noting Giuffre’s own words exonerated the president and that Maxwell, in August-released testimony, stated she never saw Trump at Epstein’s properties.

The episode reignites a saga that has dogged Trump’s second term. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to declassify Epstein files, but Attorney General Pam Bondi cited privacy concerns for victims and sensitive materials like child imagery as reasons for partial releases only. Critics, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, have accused the administration of a “cover-up,” pointing to delays in swearing in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, whose vote could force a full DOJ disclosure under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Giuffre’s family, still reeling from her loss, expressed mixed relief at the clarification but renewed pain over the politicization. In a July statement, her siblings questioned Trump’s offhand remark that Epstein “stole” her from Mar-a-Lago, asking if it implied prior awareness of her recruitment. “It makes us wonder what he knew,” they said, though they stopped short of accusations. Giuffre’s book, serialized in outlets like CBS News, detailed Epstein’s web but spared Trump, focusing instead on abusers like Andrew and unnamed elites.

Legal experts view the emails as hearsay at best, lacking corroboration from victims or witnesses. David Boies, Giuffre’s former attorney, told reporters the messages align with her accounts: Trump was peripheral, friendly but uninvolved. No federal probe has targeted Trump, and flight logs show he flew on Epstein’s jet once in 1997 — a short hop from Palm Beach to New York, with family aboard — but never to Little St. James.

Social media erupted, with #EpsteinHoax trending alongside defenses from MAGA influencers. Posts on X (formerly Twitter) recirculated Giuffre’s quotes, while critics like Rep. Nancy Mace, a rare GOP backer of full disclosure, reiterated: “My heart is with the victims — this isn’t about politics.” The Oversight Committee vows more hearings, but with the shutdown averted, momentum may stall.

As the dust settles, the White House frames the saga as vindication: Epstein’s words, twisted by foes, ultimately echo Giuffre’s truth — Trump walked away clean. Yet for survivors like Annie Farmer, another Epstein accuser pushing transparency, the selective leaks underscore a deeper frustration. “If there’s nothing to hide, release it all,” she urged in a BBC interview. With midterms looming and Bondi’s DOJ under fire, the Epstein shadow lingers, a reminder that old ghosts die hard in Washington.