White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to deny that President Donald Trump spent "hours" with a sex trafficking victim at the home of Jeffrey Epstein.
Leavitt took questions at a White House briefing on Wednesday after House Democrats released a trove of emails in which Epstein claimed that Trump "knew about the girls" who were being abused.
"Did the president ever spend hours at Jeffrey Epstein's house with a victim?" CBS correspondent Weijia Jiang asked Leavitt.
"These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," the press secretary deflected. "And what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach, and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep."
In emails, however, Epstein had claimed that he was "never a member ever" of Trump's club.
Leavitt noted that Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre "maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that President Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her."
"This administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever," she insisted. "In fact, this administration, the Department of Justice, has turned over tens of thousands of documents to the American people."
"And it just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party, for now they're talking about it all of a sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office," Leavitt added. "They care about trying to score political points against President Trump as we have, of course, seen with this government shutdown."
"And it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government. This is another distraction campaign by the Democrats and the liberal media, and it's why I'm being asked questions about Epstein instead of the government reopening because of Republicans and President Trump."
One reporter wondered why Trump seemed to be pressuring some Republicans — like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) — to remove their names from a discharge petition that could lead to the release of more Epstein files.
"That's a defining factor of transparency, having discussions with members of Congress about various issues, and I'm not going to detail conversations that took place in the situation room, in the press briefing room," Leavitt asserted.
"I have a question about the government shutdown," another reporter said.
"Thank you," Leavitt replied. "I'm glad someone does."