Fox News has faced criticism for its delayed and notably vague coverage of newly released emails connecting Jeffrey Epstein to former President Donald Trump, a story that other major news networks reported on extensively hours earlier.
A Delayed and Opaque Report
On Wednesday morning, while competitors like CNN and MSNBC were providing detailed reports on a trove of documents released by House Oversight Committee Democrats, Fox News remained largely silent. The documents included three email exchanges where the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly mentioned Donald Trump's name.
It was not until roughly three hours after the emails' release that Fox News correspondent Mark Meredith briefly touched on the subject. During a segment primarily focused on the House of Representatives reconvening, Meredith told anchor Harris Faulkner about "some new developments today from the House Oversight Committee" regarding the Epstein controversy.
Crucially, Meredith failed to specify what these developments were, and Faulkner did not press for details or offer any further context to viewers later in her programme.
The Content of the Bombshell Emails
The emails in question, obtained from Epstein's estate, revealed several key interactions. In a 2011 exchange with his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein claimed that Trump "spent hours at my house" with an unnamed victim, describing the former president as one "dog that hasn't barked." Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, replied, "I've been thinking about that."
Analysts noted that these communications severely undercut Maxwell's recent attempts to distance Trump from her former partner in interviews with Trump's Justice Department. Following these interviews, she was transferred to a minimum-security prison camp and is now seeking clemency.
In a separate 2015 email, Epstein asked author Michael Wolff for advice on how Trump might handle questions about their past association. Wolff suggested, "I think you should let him hang himself." A 2019 exchange with Wolff included an apparent reference to Trump asking Maxwell to stop recruiting young women from his Mar-a-Lago club, with Epstein stating that "of course" Trump "knew about the girls."
Fox News Finally Provides Details with a Pro-Trump Spin
Later on Wednesday afternoon, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy became the first on the network to explicitly mention the email releases. During the programme America Reports, he framed the story with a decidedly pro-Trump perspective ahead of a White House press briefing.
Doocy stated that officials were calling the emails "selectively leaked" and highlighted the White House's intention to discredit author Michael Wolff. This reporting shift occurred against a backdrop where prominent Trump allies on Fox, like Sean Hannity, have previously vowed to avoid the Epstein saga, with Hannity declaring in August, "If I hear that name one more time, my head's going to explode."
Republicans later identified the redacted victim mentioned in the emails as Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein survivor who died by suicide in April. It was noted that Giuffre never accused Trump of criminal behaviour and had written that he "couldn't have been friendlier" towards her. Trump, who was friends with Epstein before a falling out in the 2000s, has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case and has denied any involvement in Epstein's crimes.
