Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein, left, and Donald Trump as they pose collectively on the Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seashore, Florida, in 1997.
Davidoff Studios Images | Archive Photographs | Getty Pictures
A “bawdy” letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing President Donald Trump’s signature was included in an album of letters Epstein obtained for his fiftieth birthday in 2003, The Wall Road Journal reported on Thursday night, citing paperwork reviewed by the newspaper.
The letter, which the Journal mentioned Trump despatched on the request of Epstein’s buddy Ghislaine Maxwell, would have been written 16 years earlier than the Justice Division charged the now-dead Epstein with little one intercourse trafficking in 2019, throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace.
The missive, which Trump denied having written, got here to mild because the president angrily tries to tamp down rising criticism of the choice by Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi to not launch extra proof the Justice Division obtained throughout its investigation of Epstein.
It was unclear whether or not the birthday album was among the many Epstein paperwork not too long ago reviewed by the Justice Division. CNBC has requested remark from the Justice Division and the White Home in regards to the album and the letter.
In keeping with the Journal, the letter “comprises a number of traces of typewritten textual content framed by the define of a unadorned girl, which seems to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
“A pair of small arcs denotes the lady’s breasts, and the longer term president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ beneath her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the Journal’s Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo reported.
“The letter concludes: ‘Glad Birthday — and should every single day be one other fantastic secret,'” they wrote.
The Journal mentioned that it was not clear “how the letter with Trump’s signature was ready.”
“Contained in the define of the bare girl was a typewritten observe styled as an imaginary dialog between Trump and Epstein, written within the third individual,” the paper reported.
A leather-bound album ebook containing Trump’s birthday letter, in addition to letters to Epstein from the lawyer Alan Dershowitz and billionaire Les Wexner, was among the many paperwork “examined by Justice Division officers who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years in the past,” the newspaper reported, citing individuals who have reviewed the pages.
Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture throughout an interview on Tuesday, based on the newspaper.
“This isn’t me. This can be a faux factor. It is a faux Wall Road Journal story,” he mentioned. “I by no means wrote an image in my life. I do not draw photos of ladies,” he mentioned. “It isn’t my language. It isn’t my phrases.”
The paper mentioned that Trump advised the Journal that if it revealed an article in regards to the letter, “I am gonna sue The Wall Road Journal identical to I sued everybody else.”
After the Journal’s story was revealed, Vice President JD Vance in a publish on the social media website X, wrote, “Forgive my language however this story is full and utter bulls—.”
“The WSJ must be ashamed for publishing it,” Vance wrote within the tweet. “The place is that this letter? Would you be shocked to study they by no means confirmed it to us earlier than publishing it? Does anybody truthfully imagine this appears like Donald Trump?”
The Journal’s article was revealed a day after the Justice Division fired Maurene Comey, a prime prosecutor within the Manhattan U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, who had been a part of the groups that prosecuted Epstein and Maxwell. Comey is the daughter of Trump’s long-time nemesis James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director in 2017.
Trump has mentioned that he ended his friendship with Epstein earlier than the cash supervisor pleaded responsible to a intercourse crime involving a minor in Florida state courtroom in 2008.
Epstein, then 66, died in August 2019 in a Manhattan federal jail, a month after his arrest on little one intercourse trafficking costs. His dying was dominated a suicide.
Maxwell was convicted at trial in Manhattan federal courtroom of a number of crimes associated to procuring underage ladies to be sexually abused by Epstein. In 2022, she obtained a 20-year jail sentence.
