WASHINGTON – An email written by Donald Trump’s once-close friend Jeffrey Epstein suggests the two men maintained contact after Trump became president, contradicting Trump’s oft-repeated claim that he cut ties with the now-dead child sex trafficker two decades ago.

The revelation comes in a Nov. 23, 2017, exchange in which Epstein discusses his plans for the coming days with someone described as “Faith Kates” in Epstein’s email contacts. The email was among thousands of documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, which received them thanks to a subpoena of Epstein’s estate.

Kates asks where Epstein is spending Thanksgiving, and Epstein responds: “eva.”

Kates replies that “Glenn” will be there, but that he is “such a snooze,” and then asks, “who else is down there?”

Epstein responds: “david fizel, hanson, trump.”

To which Kates responds: “Have fun!!!”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the email chain was meaningless. “These emails prove literally nothing,” she said, but declined to answer the specific question HuffPost posed, which was whether Trump had met with Epstein in November 2017.

Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated that Trump had done nothing wrong and that he had banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach country club, because of his conduct.

It is unclear who Faith Kates or David Fizel or Hanson are — or even if their names are spelled correctly, given the copious misspellings in Epstein’s emails. It is also unclear where “down there” refers to, although both Epstein and Trump had residences in Palm Beach, Florida, which by late November is fully into its social “season.”

Nov. 23, 2017, was Thanksgiving that year, and Trump ― as he has been on many weekends and holidays from late October through mid-spring as president — was at Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump and his girlfriend (and future wife), former model Melania Knauss, financier (and future convicted sex offender) Jeffrey Epstein, and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell pose together at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 12, 2000.

Davidoff Studios Photography via Getty Images

Epstein communicated with others in Trump’s orbit well after the time Trump claims he broke off contact with him. In a March 9, 2016, exchange with Trump confidante and real estate investor Tom Barrack, Barrack writes: “Hope ur good. Let’s catch up.”

Epstein responds: “send photos of you and child. – make me smile.”

Barrack is now the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

This summer, Trump began claiming that he ended his friendship with Epstein after he learned that Epstein had been hiring staff away from Mar-a-Lago to join what turned out to be Epstein’s underage sex trafficking ring.

“He did something that was inappropriate. He hired help. And I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” Trump told reporters during a $10 million taxpayer-funded golf vacation to Scotland. “He did it again. And I threw him out of the place. Persona non grata.”

That hiring away began no later than 2000, however, which was when Epstein accomplice and fellow sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell recruited Virginia Giuffre, then 16 years old, in the Mar-a-Lago parking lot. It took a full seven years before Trump finally ended Epstein’s Mar-a-Lago membership, which coincided with Epstein’s 2007 announcement that he would accept a plea bargain to a state prostitution charge to avoid federal charges.

When HuffPost asked him why it took seven years to break with Epstein, Trump said: “I don’t understand your question.”

Interest in the Epstein case rekindled this spring and summer when Trump’s Department of Justice, after claiming it would release all the investigatory files in the case against Epstein, abruptly reversed course and said there was nothing else to release. Not long afterward, Maxwell was transferred without explanation from a Florida prison to a “Club Fed” type camp in Texas after meeting with a top DOJ lawyer.

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019, a month after he was arrested again, this time on federal sex trafficking charges following a Miami Herald investigation into his 2007 plea deal.

Maxwell was convicted by a federal jury in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.