A House Democrat who has reviewed the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein says that there are plenty of reasons to think President Donald Trump may have committed crimes with the sex offender.
Rep. Dave Min, a former attorney who is a member of the House Oversight Committee, appeared on CNN on Tuesday morning and pushed back on host John Berman’s disclaimer that there is no reason to think Trump was involved in wrongdoing.
While discussing some of the latest documents tying the president to the disgraced financier—including a photo showing a fake check purporting to “sell” a woman from Trump to Epstein—Berman said that there is “no reason to think [Trump’s] detected in any wrongdoing involving Jeffrey Epstein.”
Min immediately disagreed.
“I would say we have lots of reasons to think he was involved in wrongdoing,” the Democrat from California said.
“At this point, there’s a lot of smoke,” he added. “There may be some fire. I would just push back and say there are a lot of reasons to think Donald Trump was involved.”
Berman followed up by asking the freshman congressman what evidence he had seen to give him that belief.
“What proof do you have that he was involved with wrongdoing in regards to Jeffrey Epstein?” Berman asked. “And if that’s the case, why have there been no prosecutions over 20 years here? Because there haven’t really been any allegations that he was involved with wrongdoing.”
“There are a lot of connections where Donald Trump was named,” Min said. “We have a 14-year-old claiming that she was raped by him, then withdrew that claim after she was apparently threatened.”
In 2016, an unnamed plaintiff filed three lawsuits, all dismissed or withdrawn, accusing Trump of raping her at Epstein’s New York apartment when she was 13. The defendant, who was later referred to by the pseudonym Katie Johnson, gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which she claimed that she recognized Trump as her attacker after seeing him on The Apprentice.
Johnson’s claims were called into question by multiple media reports. The Daily Mail quoted a source familiar with the case who said that Johnson “had no credibility.” Trump has consistently denied her allegations, which were never tested in court or backed up with independent evidence.
“I didn’t say we have proof,” Min said later in the interview. “But Donald Trump’s name is clearly mentioned a lot of times. We see him a lot over and over in things we now know to be true... we owe an obligation to the girls, to the American people out there, to keep digging and find out the truth.”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, Min said, “It’s time for Trump to release the full, unredacted Epstein files, which the DOJ subpoena requires. This cover-up cannot continue—the American people deserve answers.”
The White House responded to a request for comment with its typical response to questions about the president’s connections to Epstein.
“The Fake News continues playing into the hands of the Democrat Hoax trying to link President Trump and Epstein,” a White House spokeswoman wrote in part. “It’s not news that Epstein knew Donald Trump, because Donald Trump kicked Epstein out of his club for being a creep.”
Min has thrown his support behind a discharge petition, spearheaded by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna, which would compel the DOJ to release all of its files related to Epstein.
That petition currently does not have enough votes to pass the House, but Massie has said he expects to have enough support soon—with a Virginia special election on Tuesday night expected to deliver another Democratic vote by filling a seat that’s currently vacant.
In recent days, the White House has been hit by more damaging revelations connecting the president to Epstein, with whom the president associated for years.
On Monday night, the House Oversight Committee released the full 238-page “birthday book” that Ghislaine Maxwell assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The book included the bawdy birthday letter that Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein, replete with apparent innuendos to the pair’s pursuit of women. The letter included a doodle of a woman’s naked body, a signature meant to resemble pubic hair, and a message to Epstein that “every day be another wonderful secret.”
Meanwhile, the fake check with Trump’s signature on it, which the Wall Street Journal reported was presented to Epstein by the businessman Joel Pashcow, is allegedly a reference to a woman that Trump and Epstein both socialized with in the 90s.
The Journal reported that the check, which was massive and had the name “DJ Trump” written on it, was a practical joke about a woman whom Epstein believed preferred him over Trump.
A photo of the check was included in Pashcow’s birthday letter to Epstein, which featured a caption that read, “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated‘ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,000. Even though I handled the deal I didn’t get any of the money or the girl!”
Trump has denied writing the birthday letter, and he is suing the Journal for defamation. The White House has not yet addressed the fake check photo.
In 2023, a jury held the president liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store, awarding her $5 million in damages as part of a civil lawsuit. More than two dozen women have accused the president of sexual misconduct, stretching back to the 1980s.
