Newly released emails show Michael Wolff, the controversial author of Fire and Fury, advising convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on how to manipulate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump for Epstein’s advantage.
According to the New York Post, in exchanges included in a trove released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, Wolff suggested that Epstein could create a “debt” from Trump, warning that questions about their alleged ties on the campaign trail could be leveraged for strategic gain.
“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff wrote in a follow-up email. “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 also speculated that Trump might speak favorably of Epstein when questioned. “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 wrote.
In another email, Wolff warned Epstein that he could be the “bullet” to end Trump’s campaign if mishandled and urged the sex trafficker to 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… you need a strategy,” he wrote in January 2016.
By February, as Trump’s poll numbers climbed, Epstein noted he was being approached by reporters. Wolff responded: “Yeah, you’re the Trump bullet. 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 has built much of his career on chronicling Trump’s presidency. Fire and Fury sold nearly two million copies in its first three weeks but was widely criticized for shoddy reporting. Trump himself dismissed the book as “trash” and “full of lies.”
Even after the 2016 election, Wolff boasted to Epstein that he was writing a Trump book “for a pile of money,” noting significant cooperation from the president. The newly released emails shed light on Wolff’s behind-the-scenes efforts to profit from and manipulate the Trump-Epstein connection.
