CNN's John Berman was astonished by newly revealed emails written by Jeffrey Epstein suggesting that President Donald Trump "spent hours" with an alleged sex abuse victim.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released the contents of three emails written by the late sex offender Epstein referring to Trump, including one dated April 2, 2011, three years after he reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement that allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking charges.
"We just don't have the context surrounding any of these emails," Berman told CNN's Kaitlin Collins, who broke the news live on air. "But that first email you read, the language absolutely jumps out to me."
In that email sent 14 years ago to co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced financier referred to Trump, a former longtime friend.
“i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there," Epstein wrote in the email.
Berman said the message was significant because it placed Trump at the scene of Epstein's potentially illegal activities.
"Here is one of the alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein, a victim 'spent hours at my house' with him, him being Trump – he has never once been mentioned," Berman wrote. "Now, again, we don't have the context surrounding that, but this kind of language from Jeffrey Epstein himself. How often has Donald Trump, what has Donald Trump said about contact he may have had or time he may have allegedly spent with some of Epstein's alleged victims?"
Collins agreed the revelation was consequential because Trump has denied knowledge of his former friend's crimes, but another email from Epstein to author Michael Wolff in January 2019 states, "Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
"Trump has denied that he knew anything about what Jeffrey Epstein was doing and the sex trafficking of young women, and he said that he wasn't aware of that at the time," Collins said. "Obviously, Trump himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing. It's very important that we make that clear here, but, of course, the question has been when it comes to regards to the Justice Department and what they've released about what they know.
"[Rep.-elect] Adelita Grijalva is being sworn in today. She's the new House Democrat from Arizona, and she's expected to be that 218th signature, and so the pressure has been building on not just Democrats but Republicans here in Washington to release more information about what the Justice Department has, and so looking at that email, obviously will likely only increase that pressure to do so."
The revelations also ramp up pressure on the White House and the president himself, Berman said.
"Oh yeah, it begs many questions to be asked, perhaps to the president or the White House," he said.
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