Kaitlan Collins Says Trump White House Is Reeling From New Epstein Revelations: ‘This Has Totally Gotten Out of Their Control’ 

CNN host and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins says President Donald Trump and his White House have lost control of the Jeffrey Epstein narrative.

This week, the House Oversight Committee released thousands of emails to and from Epstein, the financier and child sex trafficker who authorities say committed suicide in a jail cell in 2019 during Trump’s first term. The documents were obtained from Epstein’s estate. They are not to be confused with what are colloquially referred to as “the Epstein files,” which are the documents in possession of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In one email from 2011, Epstein said President Donald Trump, who was then a private citizen, “spent hours at my house” with a person whose name had been redacted and who Democrats on the committee instead labeled as “Victim.” Republicans on the committee cried foul, saying that the name was that of Virginia Giuffre, who said she never witnessed Trump do anything untoward. Giuffre died by suicide this year. In another email, Epstein stated that Trump “knew about the girls.” Elsewhere, Epstein claimed he “gave” his ex-girlfriend to Trump.

Collins appeared on Friday’s AC360, where she highlighted the contradiction between the Trump administration’s insistence that there is nothing left to investigate, even as Trump is now directing the DOJ to open an investigation into Epstein and prominent Democrats.

“By announcing this investigation, they are only prolonging the Epstein storyline even further,” she said. “And of course, you have to highlight, it comes four months after the Justice Department said there was nothing else to investigate here.”

“What are sources behind the scenes telling you about this shift in strategy?” guest host John Berman asked.

Collins replied:

I think the White House, this has totally gotten out of their control and out of their hands. I remember the day after, it was maybe two days after the DOJ put that statement out in July 2025, Trump had a cabinet meeting, and it was when MAGA was blowing up and everyone was so upset about the DOJ coming out and saying no other people were going to be charged as a result of this investigation.

And the president kind of exploded when a reporter asked him about it inside the cabinet meeting that followed after saying, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” And of course, that has led to where we are now, where it has dominated as a storyline in a way that completely has surprised people that I’ve spoken to inside this administration, inside this White House.

Shortly before Collins’s remarks, Trump took questions from reporters aboard Air Force One and angrily shut down a reporter.

“Mr. President, what did Jeffrey Epstein mean in emails when he said you ‘knew about the girls’?” a journalist asked.

The president denied knowing anything about the comment.

“Sir, if there’s nothing incriminating in the files–,” the reporter said before being interrupted.

“Quiet! Quiet!” he told her.

Watch above via CNN.