The brother of Jeffrey Epstein has shut down rumors that an email he sent referenced Donald Trump having sexual relations with former President Bill Clinton.
Mark Epstein was forced to make a statement after an email exchange with his disgraced brother, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, went viral last week.
It came after thousands of files relating to Epstein were released by the House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed Epstein’s estate.
Highlights
- Mark Epstein denied rumors that his email referencing 'Bubba' meant former President Bill Clinton, calling it a private joke between brothers.
- The viral 2018 email exchange mentioned Trump, Putin, and 'Bubba,' but Mark clarified ‘Bubba’ was not a nickname for Bill Clinton.
- Over 22,000 Epstein-related documents were released, some suggesting Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes, which Trump denies as a political hoax.
Mark Epstein said the ‘Bubba’ in his email was not Bill Clinton
Image credits: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The email was sent in March 2018 in response to Jeffrey telling Mark he was with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
“Ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba,” Mark asked in the exchange.
Clinton earned the nickname Bubba because of his folksy, Southern manner, so when the email exchange was released, many linked it to him.
In a statement, Mark said the email had been misread.
“They were simply part of a humorous private exchange between two brothers and were never meant for public release or to be interpreted as serious remarks,” he wrote.
Image credits: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“For the avoidance of doubt, the reference to ‘Bubba’ in this correspondence is not, in any way, a reference to former President Bill Clinton.”
His spokesperson told The Advocate that Bubba is “a private individual who is not a public figure.”
Mark cautioned that efforts to attach political significance to a nickname “misrepresents both the purpose and the tone of the original correspondence.”
He also noted, through his spokesperson, that “misinterpretations of formal language or nicknames in email correspondence” only serve to divert attention from “the serious questions that remain unanswered.”
Some of those emails shared by House Democrats appeared to suggest that Trump knew of Epstein’s criminal activities.
Trump and the White House have denied this, describing the emails as a smear campaign and calling the Epstein files a Democratic hoax.
One email exchange, dated April 2, 2011, was sent from Epstein to accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and claims Trump spent hours with one of Epstein’s trafficking victims.
One email appeared to suggest Trump had knowledge of Epstein’s crimes
Image credits: House Oversight Committee
It reads, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief. etc. im 75% there.”
Maxwell responded, “I have been thinking about that…”
An email exchange between Epstein and Trump biographer Michael Wolff was also handed over to the Committee by Epstein’s estate.
It mentioned Mar-a-Lago, but the end of that sentence has been redacted. “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote to Wolff on January 31, 2019.
“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
On Sunday, after months of demanding his supporters stop bringing up Epstein, Trump reversed his stance and urged House Republicans to support a measure that would force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He also claimed that if he were implicated or if there was any damaging information on him, it would have been released ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The bipartisan petition, led by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, has already secured the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the matter.