Rep. Dan Goldman spoke on the House floor this week about a recently unredacted 2009 email from Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team. He claimed it contradicts President Donald Trump’s public account of how their relationship ended. This raises concerns about how the Justice Department handled the Epstein files.
Goldman, a Democrat from New York, referred to an email that summarized a phone conference with Epstein’s lawyer Jack Goldberger, Trump’s lawyer, Alan Garten, and a person named “Brad,” who is thought to be victims’ lawyer Brad Edwards.
In the version Goldman highlighted, Garten stated that Epstein “was not a member” of Mar-a-Lago, “may have been a guest,” and was “never asked to leave,” according to reports on this newly unredacted document.
Rep. Dan Goldman shares a previously redacted email that contradicts Trump’s story on how he stopped being friends with Epstein pic.twitter.com/crsQwy1oJL
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) March 18, 2026
This account disagrees with Trump’s repeated claims that he expelled Epstein from Mar-a-Lago after Epstein recruited spa employees, including Virginia Giuffre. In July 2025, Trump claimed that Epstein “stole” young women from the club’s spa and added, “I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata.” The Associated Press later reported that Trump also referred to Giuffre by saying, “He, he stole her.”
The email Goldman mentioned also reportedly included Trump saying he “may have been” on Epstein’s plane and at Epstein’s house, while denying he saw young girls on the plane or at those gatherings. These details, first revealed after the unredacted version was released, raised further questions from Democrats about whether any damaging references to Trump were deleted before the documents went public.
Goldman’s comments came just days after the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi for a closed-door deposition scheduled for April 14 regarding the Justice Department’s management of the Epstein files.
Reuters reported that Bondi is under pressure from lawmakers who accused the department of redacting or withholding names of high-profile individuals mentioned in the records. The DOJ has denied any intentional cover-up, stating that lawmakers have already received private access to unredacted materials.
Today, I exposed an unredacted email that clearly shows Trump has been lying about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
There’s no reason this should have been redacted, which is exactly why I showed it. Pam Bondi and Donald Trump: The gig is up.
Release all the files. Now. pic.twitter.com/P5tomuWETU
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) March 18, 2026
The dispute over the files has grown since Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November 2025. CBS News reported that the Justice Department released over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, and about 180,000 images and videos on January 30, while noting that more than 6 million pages had been identified as potentially relevant to the law. Some of this material was released with extensive redactions, which drew criticism from both parties.
Axios reported in February that Rep. Jamie Raskin, after reviewing the unredacted files, said at least one document seemed to conflict with Trump’s public story about kicking Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago. Raskin mentioned that this exchange was only “one memo out of 3 million,” implying lawmakers felt this issue went beyond a single document.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing connected to Epstein and has not faced charges in the case. While Trump’s past relationship with Epstein has been damaging politically, no credible criminal accusations against Trump have arisen from the file releases.
