WASHINGTON — The 2011 exchange between the late Jeffrey Epstein and longtime gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to traffic minors, was short and grammatically incorrect. Epstein wrote, "i want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is trump. VICTIM (name redacted) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned."

Epstein's anger at Trump did not abate, since their friendship ended years before.

In a 2019 email to a journalist, Epstein wrote of Trump, "of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

(We don't know what that means, but it is not damning.)

Democrats have spent years trying to link Trump with Epstein's criminal sexual abuse of minors, and they have failed. Years after Epstein's 2019 suicide, including four years of Democrat control of the Department of Justice, there's still no there there.

The House Oversight Committee amassed more than 20,000 pages of documents. House Democrats released three emails. In one of those messages, Democrats redacted the name of Epstein's most high-profile victim, Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide this year, and replaced her name with the term "VICTIM" — which suggested there might be a new unknown victim to add to the list.

Later House Republicans released the tranche.

Why replace Giuffre's name with the word "victim"? Perhaps to airbrush out Giuffre's identity because she repeatedly stated that Trump had not mistreated her in any way. On the contrary, he was kind.

As White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement to Time, "The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump. The 'unnamed victim' referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and 'couldn't have been friendlier' to her in their limited interactions."

Still, the left is desperate to establish that there is something damning in these messages.

TNR's Greg Sargent opined that Epstein's exchanges "seem to show that Trump had more of a relationship with Epstein than he's admitted and that Trump knew about Epstein's conduct."

Of course Trump knew a lot about Epstein's misconduct. The three emails House Democrats leaked were sent in 2011, 2015 and 2019, years after Epstein became a convicted felon.

In 2008, the super-rich financier with homes in New York and Florida pleaded guilty to solicitation. He spent more than a year behind bars in the Sunshine State and had to register as a sex offender for life.

The New York Post and The New York Times — Trump loves to read both papers — reported on Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution.

"But Mr. Epstein also paid women, some of them under age, to give him massages that ended with a sexual favor, the authorities say," The Gray Lady reported.

"The Manhattan moneyman appeared in a Florida courthouse today where he pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage prostitute, and immediately began serving an 18-month jail term, which will be followed by one year of 'community confinement,' which is essentially house arrest," the New York Post reported.

It was not a secret. Except maybe to the Washington press corps, who seem to think that one had to have special insight to see that Epstein was a predator.

If you are thinking about suicide, or are worried about a loved one or friend, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at [email protected]. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.

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