Epstein Claimed in 2018 He Could 'Take [Trump] Down'

The newly released emails reveal Epstein privately claimed he held damaging leverage over Donald Trump months before his 2019 death in federal custody.

Illustration by Riley Levine

By Brian Daitzman

Jeffrey Epstein told an unidentified correspondent in December 2018 that he believed he was “the one able to take him down,” a remark that, according to surrounding email context, referred to President Donald J. Trump.

The comment, included in documents released this week by the House Oversight Committee, is among the most direct expressions of leverage Epstein claimed to hold over the president. Although the email does not describe specific information or actions, its timing and tone add dimension to Epstein’s broader private assessments of Mr. Trump.

Epstein wrote the message roughly eight months before he was discovered unresponsive in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on August 10, 2019. The New York City Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide by hanging. His attorneys and several outside forensic specialists disputed aspects of that determination, citing procedural failures and inconsistencies in available evidence, but federal investigations by the Department of Justice and the FBI did not conclude that foul play occurred. Among those raising questions was forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner and longtime expert witness whose work has included chairing the congressional panel that re-examined the Kennedy and King assassinations.

Baden observed the autopsy on behalf of Epstein’s brother and later noted that the fractures in Epstein’s neck—including breaks in the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage—were, in his view, more compatible with homicidal strangulation than with suicidal hanging, though he acknowledged that such injuries can appear in both circumstances. Other specialists offered differing assessments: some found the fractures unusual, while many concluded they still fell within the spectrum of findings associated with suicidal hangings, particularly in older individuals.

The December 2018 email appears against a backdrop of increasingly severe language Epstein used to describe Mr. Trump in private correspondence from 2017 to 2019. In earlier messages he wrote that Mr. Trump was “fucking crazy,” “nuts,” and “worse in real life and upclose.” In a note discussing legal and political pressures on the administration, Epstein told journalist Landon Thomas Jr. in 2018 that the president was “evil beyond belief” and that it was “obvious he could crack.”

Other emails show Epstein asserting that he was familiar with compromising information about Mr. Trump. “You see, I know how dirty Donald is,” he wrote to attorney Kathryn Ruemmler in August 2018 during an exchange about Michael Cohen’s guilty plea. In January 2019, he told author Michael Wolff that Mr. Trump “knew about the girls,” adding that the president had “asked Ghislaine to stop.” These claims in Epstein’s emails have not been corroborated by independent investigative records.

The December 2018 remark stands out partly because of its suggestion of agency — Epstein identifying himself as someone capable of harming Mr. Trump politically or reputationally — and partly because of what followed in subsequent months. After his July 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, Epstein was placed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a facility long criticized for chronic understaffing, outdated infrastructure and lapses in oversight.

In the hours before Epstein’s death, required 30-minute checks by correctional officers were not conducted, according to federal charging documents. Two officers later admitted they had falsified log entries. Epstein’s cellmate had been transferred shortly beforehand, leaving him alone despite Bureau of Prisons guidelines that often call for paired housing following recent suicide-watch removal. Surveillance cameras near his cell recorded gaps or malfunctions, according to internal reports.

These facts, while not evidence of homicide, have prompted sustained public scrutiny and multiple reviews by federal agencies. The Justice Department’s inspector general identified serious procedural failures contributing to conditions that allowed Epstein’s death to occur. The inspector general did not conclude that Epstein was killed.

It is within this chronology — Epstein’s private claim of leverage, the arrests and investigations that followed, and the institutional failures surrounding his death — that the December 2018 email has drawn renewed attention. The documents do not establish that Epstein intended to disclose information about Mr. Trump, nor do they show that the December remark bore any connection to the events of August 2019. They do, however, provide insight into how Epstein viewed his relationship to the president and how he assessed the potential consequences of emerging legal cases.

As investigators, journalists and historians continue to evaluate the newly released material, the December message sits among the more pointed entries in Epstein’s correspondence: a statement of confidence, or perhaps bravado, from a man who believed he possessed knowledge capable of damaging a sitting president — written months before circumstances that, despite official conclusions, continue to face questions and scrutiny.

Brian Daitzman is the Editor of The Intellectualist. Read the original article here.

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References

• PEOPLE Magazine | Nov. 13, 2025 | “Jeffrey Epstein Called Donald Trump ‘Borderline Insane’ and Questioned If He Had ‘Early Dementia’ in Emails Before Death” | https://people.com/jeffrey-epstein-called-donald-trump-borderline-insane-emails-11848625

• Yahoo News | Nov. 13, 2025 | “Here’s How Jeffrey Epstein Described ‘Evil’ Donald Trump in the Newly Released Documents” | https://news.yahoo.com/articles/heres-jeffrey-epstein-described-evil-154906372.html

• Financial Times | Nov. 13, 2025 | “Jeffrey Epstein’s connections: ‘Life among the lucrative and louche’” | https://www.ft.com/content/b345abcb-c714-4857-8189-265ae39bff3a

• The Times of Israel | Oct. 30, 2019 | “Pathologist: Jeffrey Epstein’s injuries point to murder, not suicide” | https://www.timesofisrael.com/pathologist-jeffrey-epsteins-injuries-point-to-murder-not-suicide/

• PBS NewsHour | Aug. 14, 2019 | “Medical examiner dismisses doubts about Epstein autopsy” | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/medical-examiner-dismisses-doubts-about-epstein-autopsy

• CBS News | Jan. 5, 2020 | “Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy: A closer look” | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-autopsy-a-closer-look-60-minutes-2020-01-05/

• The Guardian | Nov. 13, 2025 | “Epstein kept close eye on Trump even after friendship soured, newly released emails reveal” | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/13/jeffrey-epstein-emails-trump

• Al Jazeera | Nov. 13, 2025 | “New Epstein emails and files: What do they reveal about Trump?” | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/13/new-epstein-emails-and-files-what-do-they-reveal-about-trump

• The Daily Beast | Nov. 12-13, 2025 | “Emails Reveal Epstein Called Trump a ‘Maniac’ With ‘Early Dementia’” | https://www.thedailybeast.com/emails-reveal-epstein-called-trump-a-maniac-with-early-dementia/

• PBS NewsHour | Nov. 12, 2025 | “Read Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released emails about Trump” | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-jeffrey-epsteins-newly-released-emails-about-trump

• Associated Press | Jul. 28, 2025 | “Trump says he ended friendship with Epstein because he ‘stole people that worked for me’” | https://apnews.com/article/a9896c04fcf932f232f1b319154eb800

• Yahoo News | Nov. 13, 2025 | “Jeffrey Epstein Thought Trump Was ‘Borderline Insane,’ Alan Dershowitz Was Nearly There: Email” | https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jeffrey-epstein-thought-trump-borderline-113223278.html

• Yahoo News | Nov. 12, 2025 | “What’s inside the thousands of Epstein-estate documents released by House committee” | https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/inside-thousands-epstein-estate-documents-053714710.html

• The Guardian | Jun. 27, 2023 | “Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide blamed on jail’s ‘negligence and misconduct’” | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/27/jeffrey-epstein-doj-watchdog-negligence-misconduct

• UPI | Jun. 27, 2023 | “Inspector general report finds culture of negligence at prison where Jeffrey Epstein died” | https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/06/27/Justice-Department-Jeffrey-Epstein/7881687889296/

• PBS NewsHour | Jun. 27, 2023 | “Misconduct by federal jail guards led to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, DOJ watchdog says” | https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/misconduct-by-federal-jail-guards-led-to-jeffrey-epsteins-suicide-doj-watchdog-says

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