Discredited author Michael Wolff once encouraged Jeffrey Epstein to blackmail then-presidential candidate Donald Trump — insisting the convicted pedophile could generate a “debt” from him.
The Trump-obsessed writer’s email exchanges with Epstein were among the trove of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
In one email, Wolff floated the possibility of intimidating Trump for his own benefit — as he warned Epstein that the then-GOP candidate could be asked about their alleged ties while on the campaign trail.
Michael Wolff once encouraged Jeffrey Epstein to blackmail then-presidential candidate Trump, emails reveal. CJ Rivera/Invision/AP
“I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you — either on air or in scrum afterwards,” Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” he added in a follow-up the next day.
“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.”
Wolff — who penned “Fire and Fury,” a supposed tell-all about the first Trump administration — went on to say it was possible the then-candidate could speak glowingly about the sex trafficker.
“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,” Wolff noted.
Wolff’s exchanges with Epstein were among the trove of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
He also once mused that Epstein could be the “bullet” to end Trump’s 2016 campaign if he decided to openly discuss their past ties — and suggested that Epstein should have a strategy in place.
“The more Trump looks real, or perish the thought, inevitable, the more reporters are going to focus on this, so, as you will not be surprised, you need a strategy,” the author noted in a January 2016 email exchange.
In February 2016, Epstein emailed Wolff noting that he was being approached by more reporters as Trump’s popularity in the polls grew.
“Yeah, you’re the Trump bullet,” Wolff responded.
“NYT called me about you and Trump. Also, Hillary campaign digging deeply. Again, you should consider preempting,” Wolff wrote in another email later that month.
Wolff insisted Epstein could generate a “debt” from Trump, the emails show. Getty Images
Right before the election, Wolff again suggested Epstein could tank Trump’s campaign with an email subject line that read: “Now could be the time.”
“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,” Wolff wrote. “Interested?”
The author and journalist has made a career profiting off Trump’s presidency.
Wolff’s first book, “Fire and Fury,” sold almost 2 million copies in the first three weeks after it was published in January 2018. He went on to write three more books about Trump in power.
Right after Trump was elected, Wolff boasted to Epstein that he was writing one Trump book “for a pile of cash.”
“So… I’m doing this Trump book for a pile of money and with so far quite a bit of co-operation from them (DT called me the other day and spent 45 minutes on the phone ranting and raving about the media–alarming),” he wrote in February 2017.
Wolff went on to ask Epstein to introduce him to two people who could potentially help with “off-the-record perspective on White House procedures.”
Trump, for his part, later ripped Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” — calling it “trash” and “full of lies.”
The book claimed, in part, that Trump was “an absentee father” to his five children and “a notorious womanizer” who rarely interacted with his wife, Melania Trump.
Despite becoming a bestseller, Wolff’s purported insider account of the first Trump White House was widely panned by fellow journalists for its shoddy reporting.