Trump news at a glance: new batch of Epstein emails suggest Donald Trump ‘knew about the girls’
Release of messages by Democrats on House oversight committee likely to add to pressure on White House to release Epstein files – key US politics stories from 12 November 2025 at a glance
Damning new emails that suggest Donald Trump knew about the conduct of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released Wednesday, including one in which Epstein said “of course [Trump] knew about the girls” procured for Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, and another that said Trump “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.
The release of the three messages by Democrats on the House oversight committee is likely to heap significant pressure on the White House to publish in full the so-called Epstein files, which reportedly detail the long-running scandal that has overshadowed Trump’s second term in office.
Later on Wednesday, the committee’s Republican majority countered by releasing its own tranche of 23,000 documents, accusing Democrats of “cherrypicking” the memos “to generate clickbait”.
Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, newly released emails suggest
Trump, meanwhile, fired off a post to his Truth Social platform in which he said Democrats “are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects”.
The president urged House members to focus instead on the upcoming vote to reopen the government: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
Numerous victims have said they were assaulted at Epstein’s parties that took place at his home in New York, his Florida mansion, and at his compound at Little St James in the US Virgin Islands, to which “clients” would be ferried by private jet.
House votes to end government shutdown
The longest US government shutdown in history is set to end on Wednesday after more than 42 days, following the House of Representative’s passage of a bill negotiated by Republicans and a splinter group of Democrat-aligned senators. The legislation restarts federal operations but does not include the healthcare funding the minority party demanded.
President Trump is set to sign the bill later Wednesday, the White House said.
Congress’ newest member signs release petition to force vote on Epstein files
Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in by US House speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, ending a seven-week standoff that prevented the incoming congresswoman from taking her seat.
Shortly after she took the oath of office, Grijalva signed a petition which should force a vote in the House on legislation to require the full release of files from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade.
Trump says he has ‘obligation’ to sue BBC over speech edit
Trump has said he feels he has “an obligation” to sue the BBC over its editing of one of his speeches, as a deadline looms for the corporation to respond to his billion-dollar legal threat.
The US president accused the broadcaster of having “defrauded the public” with an edition of Panorama last year that spliced together two parts of a speech he made on 6 January 2021 and has given it until Friday to respond.
Trump writes to Israeli president calling for Netanyahu pardon
Donald Trump has repeated a request to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases. The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases. No rulings have been delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.
What else happened today:
More than 252 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador under Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy suffered systematic and prolonged torture and abuse, including sexual assault, during their detention, according to a report published on Wednesday.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio is facing questions from his fellow G7 foreign ministers about the legality of the US strikes in the Caribbean on ships it says it suspects of carrying drugs.
Former AOC staffer Saikat Chakrabarti is running for Nancy Pelosi’s House seat promises to root out corruption – and Trump’s ballroom.
The US Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny on Wednesday as Donald Trump has canceled the one-cent coin. The US president has ordered its demise as costs climb to nearly four cents per penny and the one-cent valuation becomes somewhat obsolete.
Catching up? Here’s what happened Tuesday 11 November.