TEHRAN – Just days after the U.S. government shutdown ended, the House Oversight Committee released roughly 20,000 pages of documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate that have reignited a scandal some thought closed.

The documents include emails in which Epstein claims President Donald Trump “knew about the girls,” and a 2015 note to a New York Times reporter that reads, “Would you like [a] photo of Donald [Trump] and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” lines that critics say confirm long-standing allegations about Trump’s deep connection to Epstein.

Many observers and the committee itself say the material merits urgent scrutiny; the White House calls the release a politically motivated smear.

The emails show that Epstein, in venomous asides to Obama's ex-deputy counsel Kathy Ruemmler, dubbed Trump “so gross... worse in real life and up close,” and to Larry Summers: “Not one decent cell in his [Trump’s] body.”

Yet proximity bred complicity: Trump spent “hours” sequestered with victim Virginia Giuffre at Epstein's manse, per a 2011 dispatch, though she later cleared him of abuse — a “dog that didn't bark,” Epstein gloated, hinting at unspoken leverage.

In a 2017 email to his attorney, Epstein claims he arranged “a $30 million loan from the casino to Donald Trump,” described as backdated, and instructs counsel to “have one of your cronies ask to see the mortgage to Mar-a-Lago… cash from the electricians’ union” — adding that “his driver Matt was the bag man, later made an exec at the public company.”

Post-2016 victory, Epstein haunted Trump Tower. Epstein, whose 2019 suicide in a Manhattan cell preempted his trafficking trial, wasn't merely a lone wolf of Wall Street vice.

Beyond the most lurid snippets, an arguably more consequential strand of the files — first assembled and reported in detail by investigative outlet Drop Site News — connects Epstein to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and to a senior Israeli intelligence operative, Yoni Koren.

As revealed in leaked emails analyzed and published by Drop Site News, calendars and hacked Barak emails show Koren staying at Epstein’s Manhattan apartment on multiple occasions between 2013 and 2016, bank-transfer details routed through Epstein, and exchanges suggesting Epstein helped broker security and surveillance projects involving Israel internationally.

Those reports portray Epstein as a facilitator not only of sex trafficking but of influence and intelligence-adjacent operations.

Drop Site’s series goes further: it documents emails in which Epstein drafted talking points for Barak, discussed potential backchannels to Russia during the Syrian civil war, and pushed security deals in places such as Mongolia and Côte d’Ivoire — claims that, if corroborated, would recast Epstein as a geopolitical intermediary with unusually intimate ties to Israeli officials.

Despite months of cover-up efforts by the Trump administration, the disclosures have triggered a volatile showdown over secrecy and accountability in Washington.

House Democrats cast the release as proof of deliberate concealment, while key Republicans split: Thomas Massie broke ranks and demanded full, unredacted transparency, even filing a bipartisan measure to force the remaining files into the open.

Survivors and advocates say the documents reopen painful questions about who protected Epstein and why.

What emerges from the flood of pages is a portrait of a man who trafficked young women while simultaneously cultivating corridors of power that spanned finance, politics, and Israeli intelligence — ties now exposed as undeniable through investigative files.