IN THE KNOW: House Democrats released emails written by the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein saying that Donald Trump knew about his friend’s activities and had even spent time in the presence of one of Epstein’s teenage victims.

  In one of the messages to journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote, “of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” Many of the girls were later found to have been underage.

  Wolff wrote to Epstein about Trump; “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”

  . The White House claims the emails were selected to make Trump look bad. They contain the redacted name of a victim, which the Republicans revealed was Virginia Giuffre, who committed suicide in April.

  Following the release of those emails the Republicans posted online 23,000 Epstein-related documents

  Trump said on his Truth Social, “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”

  Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than President Trump did nothing wrong.” She went on, “This is another distraction campaign by the Democrats and liberal media,” which she also referred to as “the fake news.”

  The emails were written while Epstein was facing sentencing for sex crimes in Florida. In a message to his collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.” He added that an unnamed victim “spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.”

  “I have been thinking about that,” Maxwell wrote back. Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for sex trafficking, was transferred to a country club prison after being interviewed about the Epstein case by deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer for the President.

  In the meantime, the White House and senior officials have been leaning on specific Republican members of Congress, including Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, not to sign a House petition that would force a vote on releasing all the Epstein documents. Boebert was taken into the White House situation room where Karoline Leavitt claimed she was given a “briefing.”   

SHUTDOWN ENDS: The House passed a bill to fund and re-open the government after 43 days and President Trump signed it. The Democrats who forced the closure of the government won no concessions on their demand for subsidies to keep millions of Americans on health insurance.

  Cutbacks in commercial air flight remain in effect but travel could return to its normal level of stress in time for the Thanksgiving crush. At least 990 flights are cancelled today.

OFFICE POLITICS: As many as 600 employees of the newly-formed Paramount Skydance company took buyouts rather than follow boss David Ellison’s command that they return to work in the office five days a week.

  Paramount already let go 1,000 employees following the merger and 1,000 more are yet to be fired. Ellison is trying to trim costs by $3 billion, but the new buyouts will cost about $185 million.

  Ellison said in his return to office letter to employees,  “Some of the most formative moments of my life happened in rooms where I was a fly on the wall, listening and learning. I’ve never seen that happen on Zoom.”

THE REGIME:

— California Gov. Gavin Newsom is the most notable US politician to show at the United Nations climate summit. President Trump claims climate change and global warming are a “hoax,” so no one from the administration attended. Newsom accusing Trump of “doubling down on stupid.”

IT’S POLITICAL: Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of President John F. Kennedy, declared himself a candidate for the Manhattan congressional district being vacated by retiring Democrat Jerry Nadler. 

  Schlossberg is the son of President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. The handsome 32-year-old Jack is a social media star on X, Instagram, and TikTok who has critiqued president Trump, explained gerrymandering, and made fun of his uncle, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has a wicked sense of humor.

  New York might be ready to elect another rebel having elected a Democratic socialist to be mayor, but Schlossberg may have to fight the perception that he’s a Kennedy with a royal right to office.

THE SPIN RACK: The city of Tehran, Iran’s largest, is in danger of running out of water after two years of drought has failed to fill reservoirs. — Global fossil fuel emissions are on track to hit a record according to data from the Global Carbon Project. While emissions in China remained flat, they rose significantly in the US, according to the data.— Starbucks Workers United went on strike in at least 40 cities and 65 stores today, “Red Cup Day,”  on which the chain every year gives away its re-usable red cup. — One of the first humanoid Russian robots made its debut in front of an audience tottering onto the stage like a drunk then stumbling and falling. 

BELOW THE FOLD: After 232 years, the last US Penny was coined yesterday on orders from President Trump because pennies cost more to make than they are worth. It’s a rare truth from Trump. The US Mint says every penny costs 3.69 cents to make.

  Existing pennies will remain in circulation and there are still the nickel, dime, quarter, and rarely seen 50 cent and dollar coins.

  Retailers may have to deal with penny shortages by rounding up totals to the nearest nickel. Saving money on pennies might force the US Mint to make more nickels …. which cost 14 cents each to make.

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