The White House has responded to text messages sent by Jeffrey Epstein to Steve Bannon joking about unproven rumors that President Donald Trump had an affair with an aide during his first term in office that were included in the latest trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Newsweek on Monday, “This is a salacious and false rumor that has been proven to be fiction.”

The aide, Madeleine Westerhout, has also denied ever having an affair with the president after a similar claim was reported in a previous trove of Epstein files released by House Democrats last year. She described the claims as “absurd and defamatory” to The Mirror last November.

Why It Matters

On Friday, the DOJ published over 3 million pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was signed into law by Trump on November 19, 2025. The tranche of documents includes 2,000 videos and 180,000 images making the total production nearly 3.5 million pages released, in compliance with the act.

The DOJ has warned that the files “may include fake or falsely submitted images, documents or videos.”

What to Know

In the latest release, text messages from December 2018 and January 2019 showed Epstein ask Bannon about Westerhout. Bannon described her as the “receptionist” and a “good kid.”

Later in the text message chain, Epstein wrote, “The two things he dreads at the moment is that an email from his ex. Saying he has small d***. And...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipgFBVV95cUxNY3ZkQUZVd0ZYUHV1TmRNZjdf...