{"id":38663,"date":"2025-11-13T20:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38663\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T20:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:27:21","slug":"michael-wolff-encouraged-jeffrey-epstein-to-blackmail-donald-trump-emails-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/38663\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Wolff encouraged Jeffrey Epstein to blackmail Donald Trump, emails reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discredited author Michael Wolff<\/a> once encouraged Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> to blackmail then-presidential candidate Donald Trump \u2014 insisting the convicted pedophile could generate a \u201cdebt\u201d from him.<\/p>\n

The Trump-obsessed<\/a> writer\u2019s email exchanges with Epstein were among the trove of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In one email, Wolff floated the possibility of intimidating Trump<\/a> for his own benefit \u2014 as he warned Epstein that the then-GOP candidate could be asked about their alleged ties while on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

Michael Wolff once encouraged Jeffrey Epstein to blackmail then-presidential candidate Trump, emails reveal. CJ Rivera\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you \u2014 either on air or in scrum afterwards,\u201d Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you should let him hang himself,\u201d he added in a follow-up the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he says he hasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff \u2014 who penned \u201cFire and Fury,\u201d a supposed tell-all about the first Trump administration \u2014 went on to say it was possible the then-candidate could speak glowingly about the sex trafficker.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it is possible that, when asked, he\u2019ll 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,\u201d Wolff noted.<\/p>\n

Wolff\u2019s exchanges with Epstein were among the trove of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He also once mused that Epstein could be the \u201cbullet\u201d to end Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign if he decided to openly discuss their past ties \u2014 and suggested that Epstein should have a strategy in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d the author noted in a January 2016 email exchange.<\/p>\n

In February 2016, Epstein emailed Wolff noting that he was being approached by more reporters as Trump\u2019s popularity in the polls grew.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you\u2019re the Trump bullet,\u201d Wolff responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cNYT called me about you and Trump. Also, Hillary campaign digging deeply. Again, you should consider preempting,\u201d Wolff wrote in another email later that month.<\/p>\n

Wolff insisted Epstein could generate a \u201cdebt\u201d from Trump, the emails show. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Right before the election, Wolff\u00a0again suggested Epstein could tank Trump\u2019s campaign with an email subject line that read: \u201cNow could be the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d Wolff wrote. \u201cInterested?\u201d<\/p>\n

The author and journalist has made a career profiting off Trump\u2019s presidency. <\/p>\n

Wolff\u2019s first book, \u201cFire and Fury,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Right after Trump was elected, Wolff boasted to Epstein that he was writing one Trump book \u201cfor a pile of cash.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u2026 I\u2019m 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\u2013alarming),\u201d he wrote in February 2017.<\/p>\n

Wolff went on to ask Epstein to introduce him to two people who could potentially help with \u201coff-the-record perspective on White House procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, for his part, later ripped Wolff\u2019s \u201cFire and Fury\u201d \u2014 calling it\u00a0\u201ctrash\u201d and \u201cfull of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book claimed, in part, that Trump<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0\u201can absentee father\u201d to his five children and \u201ca notorious womanizer\u201d who rarely interacted with his wife, Melania Trump.<\/p>\n

Despite becoming a bestseller, Wolff\u2019s purported\u00a0insider account of the first Trump White House was widely panned by fellow journalists for its shoddy reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discredited author Michael Wolff once encouraged Jeffrey Epstein to blackmail then-presidential candidate Donald Trump \u2014 insisting the convicted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,6769,22575,9,11,10,87,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-38663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","10":"tag-michael-wolff","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}