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DOJ 2020 Email: Trump Traveled On "At Least Eight" Epstein flights; Justice Department Releases New Batch Of Epstein Documents; Trump: Releasing Photos In Epstein Files Is "A Terrible Thing"; List Of Government Entities Bearing Trump's Name Grows; Stone-Faced President And First Lady Wish Americans Merry Christmas; GDP Growth Is Up, Consumer Confidence Is Down. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 23, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Nothing to see here. That's how the Justice Department is essentially describing today's Epstein document dump where President Trump is mentioned by name time and time again.

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Right now, in our Washington newsroom, CNN reporters are combing through more than 30,000 new Epstein documents released by overnight by the Justice Department. It is painstaking work. And unlike the first tranche of files released last week that feature heavy redactions and few mentions of the president, this time, we're seeing his name again and again.

So, what have we learned? The big headline so far, according to a 2020 email from a federal prosecutor in New York that President Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet at least eight times, once with just Epstein and then a 20-year-old.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins me live now. So, Katelyn, the president has experience, may is been referenced many times in these documents. What are we learning from everything that you've seen so far?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Referenced many times, and comes into the realm of the work of the Justice Department when they were prosecuting both Jeffrey Epstein and then Ghislaine Maxwell, the co-conspirator of Epstein. The two things here that we're seeing that are quite notable about the investigative work around Maxwell before she went to trial and was convicted of sex trafficking minors.

A prosecutor in the Southern District of New York wrote to someone in the administration or the Justice Department, noting that they had just found -- they had just learned and wasn't aware of previously that Donald Trump was on eight flights on the private plane with Jeffrey Epstein between 1993 and 1996, four of those flights included Ghislaine Maxwell. A few of them had passengers who were women, who could be possible witnesses against Ghislaine Maxwell in that trial. That's very notable because the prosecutor says we didn't want any of this to be a surprise down the road. Where are the responses to that? We haven't found them at this time, but there is a big question here about what the Justice Department was learning in real time during Donald Trump's first presidency.

And Manu, the other piece of this that's come out today that we didn't know before is that Mar-a-Lago club, they were subpoenaed for records related to a -- an unnamed employee of the club around the time that -- excuse me, the late Virginia Giuffre was saying publicly that she had been recruited out of working in that club to become part of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's circle and saying that she was being preyed upon as a victim. That's a very important point, too.

The Justice Department is also going to bat for Trump in some way. They came out this morning at 7:30 and said, some of these documents, they're going to be untrue and sensationalist with the claims they're making. And there's things in here about Trump specifically that may be unfounded and false, but there are so many questions that these raise that we just had not had a window into this element of the Epstein files before, specifically, the amount that they mentioned Donald Trump.

RAJU: Yeah. And look, there was also, Katelyn, a new letter released signed by a quote, J. Epstein to the convicted sex abuser Larry Nassar, while they were both in prison.

POLANTZ: Yeah. So, this is at a time that Epstein would have been in the detention center in New York awaiting trial after being charged. Larry Nassar, the convicted sex criminal, would be in federal prison in Arizona. And this is a handwritten note, apparently signed by a J. Epstein to L.N, Larry Nassar, saying, as you know, by now, I have taken the "short route home." Good luck. We shared one thing, our love and caring for young ladies, and the hope they'd reach their full potential.

Our president also shares our love of young, new bio girls. There's a little bit else -- a little bit additional in this that is a lewd comment about Trump as well, but this is a very interesting handwritten note in these files, apparently from the bureau of prisons right around the time that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide at his postmark three days after his death. Manu?

[12:05:00]

RAJU: A lot to digest there. Katelyn Polantz, breaking it all down today's major document up from the Justice Department. Thank you so much for that. And I'm joined here in the room by a terrific group of reporters. Nice to see you all. This is a lot to take in, and then Christmas Eve document dump.

Remember, this was -- deadline was on Friday to release all these files according to the law that Trump was forced to sign into law. These documents -- we still haven't seen all of them. There's still a lot more potentially that are out there, but now we have this new amount of information. Trump's name is referenced again and again. Again, no one's alleging Trump did anything wrong, criminally or anything the like. But does today's document of give a window into why Trump fought so hard for the release -- against the release of these documents?

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, to be candid, I think it's unclear, because we have looked through -- I spent much of the -- much of the time since the documents release. Looking at the mentions of Trump and then Donald Trump as I'm sure many of us have. A lot of them are just very innocuous, mentioned, you know, his name just in passing and news clippings, which is why he's -- which is one of the reasons why he's in there a lot.

But Katelyn, I also found the reference to those flights really interesting that Katelyn mentioned. And that was -- that actually -- that finding actually came out during Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal proceedings, when the -- when the evidence -- when the discovery process was going on.

But I think the way that the Justice Department prosecutor phrase that, you know, he was telling his colleagues, I want you to know for your situational awareness. I don't want this to be a surprise down the road that at a minimum, just kind of illustrates the Justice Department sensitivities around this case, because that email was marked January 2020, obviously, the president was still in office that day.

And obviously, you know, we're still looking through the files. We're looking through where the president is reference. What does this mean? And again, it's important to remember he's never been accused of any wrongdoing. When we've asked the White House for comment, they referred us to the Justice Department statement saying there are a lot of these, you know, unfounded allegations in here.

RAJU: Yeah. And we'll get to that Justice Department statement in a second. But it's just, you know, look, this is -- this is embarrassing for the president. And this letter that was signed by J. Epstein to Larry Nassar. I mean, Larry Nassar is serving a 60-year sentence for sex crimes, for abusing more than 150 women. And here is a J. Epstein, it says, you know, J. Epstein writing about Donald Trump in such a lewd and vile way. Of course, the president doesn't want that out there.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Right. And that letter is grotesque, especially when you consider the magnitude of the crimes that both of these men were accused of. That letter would not be admissible, for example, in any court case, not that there is one taking place. So, you have to look at it in that light. But there clearly are reasons why this is embarrassing to the president and politically difficult. Ironically, this is the reason when you're talking about people who haven't been accused of any wrongdoing. Why the FBI and the Justice Department typically doesn't release documents publicly about other cases.

In this case, the president was talking about that yesterday with reference to Bill Clinton, talking about how it tarnishes people's reputations. But there's another set of victims here, and that is the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. And I think the public interest in this case is being born out for disclosure, just because they have so often been denied justice and their day in court was denied them by the death of Jeffrey Epstein. So, in that sense, I think the public interest weighs towards disclosure here.

RAJU: And the Justice Department's pre-bottle has been really something to see. I mean this tweet they put out this morning calling these, some of these documents, not saying what -- which documents. But some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalized claim made against President Trump that are submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.

They went on to say that, to be clear, the claims are unfound and false. If they had a shred of credibility, they would have been used weaponized against President Trump already. I mean, that's a pretty -- I mean, there are all sorts of people who are mentioned in here and these documents, they talk about one person, President Trump, in this defense.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: They're talking about one person and I think it's notable in contrast to, on Friday, when some of the documents came out that had pictures of Bill Clinton, and there were lots of claims being made by Justice Department officials about what those showed. And trying to put the spotlight on Clinton as being guilty in some way, even though Trump himself, as we're talking about, said, oh, Bill Clinton has been brought into this in ways that might not be fair.

But look, I do think that what we should come back to here, ultimately, it's all these considered documents. This is -- I'm going to read to you what the Epstein transparency files, the act says. It requires the attorney general to release all documents and records in possession of the Department of Justice relating to Jeffrey Epstein and for other purposes. That is off the White House website, and says, this was signed by law -- signed into law by the president. They are not following that law.

[12:10:00]

RAJU: Yeah. And the question is, when will it be in full compliance? And you know if that's going to actually happen, soon. Will happen Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, perhaps, as we've known, bad news to get buried over the holidays. We'll see. But just about -- you mentioned about the Trump and his response, and the Bill Clinton. Remember, the initial trove of documents that came out on Friday included a number of references to Bill Clinton had some unflattering photos of Bill Clinton.

Again, just like Trump, Bill Clinton has not been charged with doing anything wrong here criminally, but the White House has jumped all over that initially, those Bill Clinton photos, even Karoline Leavitt posted about the thing, oh my, about one of Bill Clinton, a picture of him in a hot tub with someone's face blacked out there. Steven Cheung called him slick willy. And then Trump -- but Trump has sounded much different than his own aides when he was asked about all of this just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don't like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it's a terrible thing. A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they're in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody. So, a lot of people are very angry that this continues. Lot of Republicans are angry because of the fact that it's just used to deflect against a tremendous success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: A lot of Republicans are angry because of the fact that it's just used to deflect against a tremendous success. Trump says. About a law that was passed with just one person voting against it in both chambers.

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: I was just about to say that, yes, for a party that, you know, wants a lot of attention on what they've done. They were the ones who voted for this to happen, and Trump signed it into law. Listen, hearing Trump defend Bill Clinton, sounds like he's talking about himself. He's embarrassed. He doesn't want pictures, these letters, a number of things that we don't know out there about himself.

And I think he's saying, you know, we shouldn't even allow someone like Bill Clinton to be out there in such a way as well. It's interesting that the White House is obviously, it's unsurprising they're putting Bill Clinton out there. But even Bill Clinton's spokeswoman is saying, there's nothing to hide here. This isn't about us. This isn't about the former president. This is about the current president. They should be as transparent and open as we are to just having this about.

RAJU: Yeah. And the question is, I mean, at what point will these documents come out? Because, you know, underneath all of this, this fight in Washington, the fight with the president and the rest, and what it means for the president. There are victims here that were, of course, impacted by this horrific sex trafficking scandal, and the victims, the ones that are talking publicly are simply not satisfied with, has been released so far, particularly all the redactions that have come out. So, we'll see eventually, what else ultimately emerges.

All right. What do the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace and a newly announced fleet of navy ships have in common? Spoil alert. The answer is, in the name. That's next.

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[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) RAJU: They will be known as the Trump class. A new generation of U.S. battleships that will be -- according to the U.S. Navy, the most lethal warship to ever be built, and the president himself plans to play a role in their design.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These are the best in the world. They'll be the fastest, the biggest and by far. One hundred times more powerful than any battleship ever built. The U.S. Navy will lead the design of the ships along with me because I'm a very esthetic person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The Trump fleet joins a long, and yes, growing list of government entities bearing the president's name, Trump-Kennedy Center, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, TrumpRX, Trump accounts for newborns, and Trump Gold Card visas. I'm sure that list will grow.

My panel is back. Stephen Collinson, you wrote about this. Your lead of your piece for cnn.com was, just call it Trump America, and this is what you write. It's not normal for presidents to name things after themselves. They usually have the modesty to wait for history's judgment and for a grateful nation to honor their service. Aircraft carriers named after J.F.K. and Gerald Ford were laid down years after they died. President Joe Biden announced in January that future carriers would be named for presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. This is not normal.

COLLINSON: No, it's not normal. But we do know that the president, throughout his business career, made a living by franchising and putting his brand on pretty much everything, hotels, golf courses, apartment blocks, et cetera. Now he is using the power of the presidency to do it on government institutions that is slightly different. You remember he put his name last week on another man's memorial, the Kennedy Center.

He basically closed down the U.S. Institute for Peace, then put his name on the front and attended an event there. This is clearly a president who is chasing a legacy in his own lifetime. He finds status and recognition something that is a driving force of his personality and politics. Some people might feel that this naming binge, however, goes too far. A lot of his critics are saying this is yet another sign of how the president used expansive power in ways that are counter to American democratic values.

RAJU: And you say, and this has been -- it's been a trend through Trump's career. This is just -- we showed you the names, current names of places that he has put the Trump with label on, whether it's the Kennedy Center or the Institute of Peace. We talked about the Gold Card visas and the like. But then what about he -- what he's done in the past?

There was things, ventures that had failed before he became president. There was a Tour de Trump pro cycling race, Trump Shuttle airline. I don't remember the Tour de Trump pro cycling race, to tell you the truth. I do remember Trump University that got a lot of discussion in the first term. Trump Taj Mahal, I think I went to that many years ago. Trump Steaks, of course. So obviously this is a trend for Donald J. Trump.

[12:20:00]

DOVERE: Yeah. This is what he does. He built a name for himself, not out of building things for the most part, but of getting a small percentage stake in buildings and putting his name on it, so that it would be a brand that people would be attracted to. I do think, though, in the work of the presidency, what's notable here is every president has a limited amount of time of any day. There's only so much they can do.

And you look at what Donald Trump has spent his time doing, even just in this past week, talking about the now Trump-Kennedy Center, as they want to call it, even though it requires an act of Congress to call it that. The Trump that he's going to design battleships now. These are -- that's what he's spending his time doing. It's not doing a lot of other things that he could be doing.

And I think as he's doing it, we're talking about building this ballroom at the White House. He's saying that affordability is a hoax. He's saying that all these things that other people want to talk about are not worth talking about, or at least not worth his time. And we will see how that continues to play out in the American public. I think what you can see already, over the last couple months, is that there are a lot of voters who seem to think that his priorities are not in the right place.

RAJU: Yeah. I mean, there's the president's most precious resource is his time, no question about that. But there's also just been criticism, particularly when it comes to putting his name on the Kennedy Center, as Isaac said. This is something that's in the law that's called the Kennedy Center. The board that he named voted to put the Trump-Kennedy Center name on it. It's on the -- now it's on the facade of the Kennedy Center. And even the Wall Street Journal, the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page has a new editorial out saying, the Donald J. Trump Center for everything is the headline and they criticizes his decision to move ahead with this.

SOTOMAYOR: Yeah. I think something that is notable here, and an example kind of overshadowing all this is how Trump is circumventing Congress in another way. And even looking at these battleships, sure that's a tradition of how you name them, et cetera, et cetera. You don't need Congress's approval for that, but just how much it's going to cost to build these ships. 10 to $12 billion. Current carriers are about 2.8 billion. Congress hasn't appropriated money for this. He's just announcing and saying, hey, I'm going to do this.

RAJU: It's not even clear it would actually have this effect of the -- what you know, we would do deter China, for instance, to be effective, or actually, these fleets to be actually built. SOTOMAYOR: Exactly. A lot of this is, you know, unilateral action on his part. Of course, he wants the recognition, the legacy. But there's another branch of government here, and they're not saying anything. They're not pushing back.

RAJU: Yeah. Seung Min, before we go to break, I do want you to look at the photo that the White House put out today about the president and the first lady, wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas. They're not smiling. That's Trump's MO.

KIM: Oh, maybe this is a serious time. I don't know if that's what they're trying to convey. But yeah, that is stone face is exact -- right way to describe that. I mean, this is, you know, they've certainly put their imprint on all manners of the White House. Obviously, preparing the White House for the holidays and decorating the White House, preparing for the holiday season was a big priority for Melania Trump, the first -- or the first lady. And this is -- I guess, this is the image that they want to project to the public in this very Merry Christmas season.

RAJU: Yeah.

DOVERE: Yeah. I mean, as he says, yes, it's a serious time, but he says, everything's great. It's an A plus, plus, it was seven A plus. Economy, he doesn't seem very happy about it based on that photo. I mean, I may not be the expert on what makes for a Merry Christmas, but he doesn't see merry.

RAJU: Yeah, yes, yes, but you're right. They choose to put that image out for a reason. Well, that's the reason, I guess. We'll try to figure that out. All right, next. Americans say the economy is not working. But we have new data this morning that show GDP growing at the fastest pace in two years. So, what's going on.

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[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: A blockbuster economic report out this morning, showing the U.S. economy grew by more than 4 percent in the third quarter. It's the fastest pace in two years. CNN's Matt Egan is in New York. Matt, this is higher than anyone expected. So, what exactly is going on here?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Manu, we did get some seemingly contradictory reports on the state of the economy today. As you mentioned, GDP came in high, but we also learned that consumer confidence got even lower this month. I'll try to explain the disconnect there. But first, let me run you through the GDP numbers much better than expected.

4.3 percent is the annualized growth rate in the third quarter. That is an unexpected acceleration from 3.8 percent during the second quarter. And when you look at the trend, you can see how GDP has clearly rebounded after contracting during the first three months of this year. In fact, this is the fastest pace for GDP in two years. And before that, you really got to go back to the rapid COVID reopening.

So, why did GDP accelerate? A few things. First off, imports fell because of high tariffs. Any time that happens that mechanically will boost GDP. That's just the way it's calculated. Government spending increased, especially defense spending. And then perhaps the biggest factor. We had consumer spending heating up.

However, this report doesn't tell you who picked up their spending among consumers. And economists say this was likely higher income households because in this K-shaped economy, a lot of middle class and lower income consumers, they're actually cutting back on their spending.

However, we also learned today that the mood on Mainstreet got even darker this month. Consumer confidence falling for the fifth month in a row. Confidence hasn't been this low since April. And what really stands out to me is when you zoom out, look at how much lower consumer confidence is now than it was back in early 2020, before COVID-19.