Previously unreleased emails reveal sustained, strategic, and often personal communications between journalist Michael Wolff and Jeffrey Epstein, with exchanges focused on political messaging, media influence, and repeated discussions about Donald Trump—including efforts to shape public narratives about his candidacy and presidency.
Among the newly released records from the Department of Justice—part of a 3.5 million-page document production under the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed by President Trump—are emails between author Wolff and Epstein that reveal a striking level of political discussion, media planning, and apparent coordination related to Trump’s rise in 2015 and beyond.
The released records include a February 2016 message from Wolff warning Epstein, “NYT called me about you and Trump. Also, Hillary campaign digging deeply. Again, you should consider preempting.” Epstein responded simply, “Lots of reporters.” To which Wolff replied, “Yeah, you’re the Trump bullet.”
In another exchange from October 2016, Wolff said, “There’s an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him. Interested?”
Wolff workshopped talking points and responses with Epstein, in December 2015 musing: “If we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” The question came in response to a heads-up from Wolff the night before: “I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship wit= you–either on air or in scrum afterwards.” The next afternoon, Wolff followed up with strategic advice:
I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he’ll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.
In May 2016, Wolff reached out again ahead of a planned interview, asking, “Anything you think I should ask?” Epstein replied with a list of what he considered damaging topics for Trump, including “revenue of golf courses as income,” “total debt of all cost,” and “how much did his father leave.”
In a March 2016 email titled “Patterson,” Wolff advised Epstein that he needed an “immediate counter narrative” to the upcoming James Patterson book, proposing that Donald Trump offered “an ideal opportunity.” He wrote that “Becoming an anti-Trump voice gives you a certain political cover which you decidedly don’t have now,” and urged Epstein to go public. Wolff outlined a media strategy that could include a television interview, an op-ed, and social media efforts and suggested assembling a group of media allies to support the effort.
Hellbound and Down 