NEED TO KNOW
President Donald Trump allegedly gifted Jeffrey Epstein a lewd letter for his 50th birthday, according to a new report.
On Thursday, July 17, The Wall Street Journal reported that the president, 79, was among the family and friends whom Ghislaine Maxwell contacted to make a personalized 2003 birthday album, citing documents reviewed by the outlet.
The birthday letter to the disgraced financier and child sex offender is described by the outlet as “bawdy,” and containing “typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman.”
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“The future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair,” the WSJ reported.
“The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,’” according to the outlet.
The letter also reportedly included a typewritten note of an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein. In the exchange, Trump says, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.” The response from Epstein is “Yes, we do, come to think of it.”
“Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?” Trump then asks Epstein in the imagined conversation. “As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you,” Epstein replies.
In an interview with the WSJ, Trump denied writing the letter and threatened to sue the outlet “just like I sued everyone else.”
“This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he told the outlet. “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women… It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
Justice Department officials didn’t respond to the WSJ’s request for comment, and the FBI declined to comment.
Epstein was found dead in his prison cell on Aug. 10, 2019, at the age of 66.
The issue of whether to release files related to the Epstein investigation has led to increased scrutiny over the Trump Administration’s handling of the case.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have been trying to add an amendment to a cryptocurrency bill that would compel the Justice Department to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, though they have been rebuffed by Republicans.
The administration has received backlash after a Justice Department memo revealed that its investigation into the late billionaire had concluded — and that a much-speculated “client list” did not exist.
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The memo also stated that there was no evidence that Epstein blackmailed high-profile individuals and reasserted that the disgraced financier, who was found dead in a Manhattan jail, had died by suicide.
Following the memo, Trump was asked about Epstein.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” the president asked, ABC News reported. “This guy’s been talked about for years … are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
Previously, the Justice Department released hundreds of pages of documents related to the Epstein case — many of which had already been publicly reported.
In a Fox News appearance, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Sean Hannity that “thousands of pages” were “sitting in the Southern District of New York,” and that they had been delivered to the Department of Justice.
The previous materials released by the Justice Department include flight logs, an evidence list, pages from a contact book and a masseuse list.
There were names of several high-profile people associated with Epstein, though the appearances of names do not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing and are listed without context.
Among the people whose names were on the flight logs is that of President Donald Trump. Epstein was also notably linked to former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
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Epstein controversially died by suicide in 2019 after being arrested on sex trafficking charges.
In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting a person under 18 for prostitution and wound up serving over a year in jail.
The disgraced financier’s co-conspirator Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in 2022 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
