Trump downplays Jeffrey Epstein letter that reignited an uproar

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called a birthday note he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein a “dead issue,” seeking to tamp down mounting questions over his past interactions with the late disgraced financier.

“I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, a day after House Democrats released a copy of the letter that was produced in response to a congressional subpoena of Epstein’s estate. “I gave all comments to the staff. It’s a dead issue.”

The document reignited an uproar against the Trump administration over its handling of documents related to Epstein, including pressure from some of the president’s own supporters to provide more transparency on the investigation into the convicted sex offender and his associates.

Questions about Trump’s prior links to Epstein intensified on Monday when congressional Democrats released the alleged birthday note along with a trove of other documents. Those documents, received by the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into the sex-trafficking operation run by Epstein, include his last will and testament, entries from his address and contact books and information about his known bank accounts.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Tuesday that the image of the letter released by House Democrats is fabricated, claiming Trump did not sign it.

“The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter, and that’s why the president’s external legal team is aggressively pursuing litigation against the Wall Street Journal, and they will continue to,” Leavitt told reporters, accusing Democrats of “desperately trying to concoct a hoax to smear the president of the United States.”

The Wall Street Journal previously published the existence of the letter, which Trump at the time also denied composing and labeled a “FAKE.” Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit in federal court for libel against Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., News Corp. and owner Rupert Murdoch.

“We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,” a Dow Jones spokesperson said in response to the lawsuit when it was filed.

Democrats on the Oversight panel released a second page they said came from the birthday book, which contained a photo of Epstein and several others holding a mock oversize check bearing Trump’s name, though the signature does not resemble the president’s. A message attached to the check reads: “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ (redacted) to Donald Trump for $22,500.”

“Did you see the signature on that check? It is not Donald Trump’s signature,” Leavitt said.

The spokeswoman was put on the defensive when asked to explain who concocted the “hoax” the president has said he is the victim of, given that the Epstein documents are said to be decades old and came from the financier’s estate.

“I did not say the documents are a hoax,” Leavitt said. “The hoax is the Democrats pretending to care about victims of crime when they do not care about victims of crime.”

Epstein’s case has long drawn interest from many of Trump’s allies and spurred conspiracy theories about the late convicted sex offender’s associates and death. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges, including procurement of minors to engage in prostitution. He was facing federal charges of trafficking underage girls when he was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty. Authorities said that Epstein committed suicide.

Trump vowed during the 2024 campaign to release documents on Epstein but the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declared earlier this year that the late financier did not keep a client list and that no more files related to the case would be made public, sparking blowback from some of the president’s staunchest allies.

The president has lashed out at allies who have questioned whether government officials were hiding information, saying they were falling for a Democratic effort to undermine his agenda.

Trump earlier this year directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask federal courts to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, a request DOJ lawyers made to judges in New York and Florida, where prosecutors handled separate cases against Epstein and Maxwell. But critics have demanded the full disclosure of all Epstein materials.

The House Oversight Committee in early August issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for all unredacted documents related to Epstein’s case, in addition to seeking testimony from former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions and former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.

The birthday book was compiled by Epstein’s former accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in helping Epstein sexually abuse underage women.

Maxwell told Justice Department officials that she and Epstein had a social relationship with Trump years ago but that she never saw the president behave inappropriately. Maxwell, who was given limited immunity for the July DOJ interview, was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas shortly after it was conducted.