The newly surfaced message directly contradicts Trump’s public account — and could shape the next chapter of the Maxwell clemency push
MARKET INSIDER – Eight months before his death, Jeffrey Epstein wrote an email that undercuts one of Donald Trump’s most repeated defenses about their long and complicated relationship. In the message to author Michael Wolff, Epstein said Trump’s claim to have known nothing about Epstein’s abuse of underage girls was “a lie”—and that Trump privately asked Ghislaine Maxwell, not Epstein, to stop recruiting girls from Mar-a-Lago.
The email begins with a redacted reference to a victim and Trump’s Palm Beach club before Epstein writes: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.” He then adds the explosive line: “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.” If accurate, the message suggests Trump was aware Maxwell was targeting young spa workers at his resort years before Epstein’s 2008 conviction.
Trump has long insisted that he cut ties with Epstein because he caught him “hiring help” from Mar-a-Lago’s spa—telling reporters earlier this year that he warned Epstein to stop, threw him out when he didn’t, and was furious that “young women” on his payroll were being recruited. Trump even acknowledged that Virginia Giuffre, who was hired from Mar-a-Lago at age 16 before alleging abuse by Epstein, Maxwell, and powerful associates, was likely among the employees “stolen” from him.
But Epstein’s account flips that narrative. If Trump asked Maxwell directly to stop recruiting girls, it casts doubt on his claim that he barely knew her and had no understanding of what she was doing. It also raises questions about Trump’s level of awareness—suggesting he may have recognized Maxwell’s behavior as inappropriate, exploitative, or worse long before the public did.
That discrepancy matters now more than ever. Maxwell is expected to seek a commutation or pardon, and Trump’s stance will carry enormous weight should he return to the White House or maintain political influence. A documented history of instructing Maxwell to stop recruiting girls could complicate Trump’s assertions of ignorance and raise new scrutiny over what he knew, when he knew it, and why he distanced himself only after the damage was done.
As the Epstein saga continues to unspool across politics, courts, and public opinion, this newly revealed email introduces a sharp new tension: Trump’s carefully curated narrative of distance is colliding with Epstein’s own written account—one that suggests a far closer awareness of Maxwell’s actions than he has ever publicly admitted.
