Epstein's correspondence indicates that he asked the head of the European Council Thorbjørn Jagland for a meeting with Sergey Lavrov ahead of the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, DW reports.
American financier and hedge fund manager Jeffrey Epstein, accused in the U.S. of coercing minors into prostitution, in June 2018 wrote a letter to then-chairman of the European Council Thorbjørn Jagland asking him to arrange a meeting between Epstein and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. At this meeting, which was to take place a month before the negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Epstein wanted to share information about Trump with the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Politico online publication reported on Wednesday, November 12.
It is noted that such conclusions were made by journalists after reviewing Epstein's emails released by Democrats in the U.S. Congress on November 12. In the course of this correspondence, Jagland replied that he planned to meet the next day with Lavrov's assistant and offer him to arrange a meeting with Epstein. Whether this meeting ultimately took place is unknown.
Likely Meeting of Epstein with Churkin
In one of his letters, the financier hints that he had already spoken about Trump with the then-permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Vitaly Churkin. "Churkin was magnificent," the publication quotes Jeffrey Epstein. "After our conversations, he understood Trump. It's not difficult. You have to see him to understand how simple it is."
According to Politico's publication, this exchange of messages is just one of dozens illustrating how many international partners Jeffrey Epstein communicated with regarding political decisions made by Donald Trump during his first presidential term.
Epstein Discussed the Outcomes of the Putin-Trump Summit
Additionally, Epstein discussed in his correspondence the outcomes of the summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki on July 16, 2018, which was considered a failure for the U.S. president due to his "capitulation" to Putin. "Do the Russians have something on Trump? Today was horrifying even by his standards," wrote Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary in Bill Clinton's administration and economic advisor to Barack Obama, to Epstein.
Epstein responded that his email was "flooded" with similar comments and described Trump's behavior at the meeting with Putin as predictable. "I am sure that, in his opinion, everything went very well. He thinks he charmed his opponent... He has no idea about most things," the financier wrote.
White House on Jeffrey Epstein's Correspondence
Democratic congressmen also published new emails from Jeffrey Epstein on November 12, 2025. Among other things, they claim that Donald Trump knew that Epstein was involved in pimping, including using minors. For instance, in 2011, the financier wrote to his friend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump spent several hours at his house with a girl who was later identified as one of the victims of sex trafficking. In another email from 2019, Epstein stated that Trump "certainly knows about the girls because he asked Ghislaine to stop."
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt stated at a briefing on November 12 that these messages "prove absolutely nothing except that President Trump did nothing wrong." Trump himself later wrote on his social media platform Truth Social: "Democrats are trying to return to the slander regarding Jeffrey Epstein because they are willing to do anything to distract from how poorly they performed during the shutdown."
