The White House on Tuesday emphatically refuted claims that President Donald Trump penned a note to Jeffrey Epstein or endorsed a $22,500 check for the disgraced financier. While asserting both documents were forged, the administration refrained from labeling them as outright fabrications.
“The President did not write this letter. He didn’t sign this letter,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt informed journalists during a briefing. She also indicated the Trump Administration would be open to a handwriting expert examining the signature on the 2003 letter and the President’s handwriting from that era.
When continuously pressed on whether the documents were fake, Leavitt retorted: “I did not say the documents are a hoax. I said the entire narrative surrounding Jeffrey Epstein right now that is absorbing many of the liberal cable channels is a hoax. It is a distraction.”
The recently disclosed materials, released Monday night by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, featured a 238-page birthday album for Epstein and a censored image depicting him holding an oversized check seemingly endorsed by “DJTRUMP.” The caption beneath the photo, which is partially obscured, stated: “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”
Hours before Republicans made the records public, the Committee’s Democrats publicized the letter in the birthday book signed by Trump. The records were provided by legal counsel for Epstein’s estate in response to a subpoena demanding financial records, contact lists, and correspondence.
For Trump, these revelations serve as a reminder of a friendship he has long sought to distance himself from. Once prominent in Palm Beach social circles, Trump and Epstein were frequently seen together in the 1980s and 1990s before their relationship soured in the early 2000s. Trump has stated he barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for recruiting spa employees, including Virginia Giuffre, who later became one of Epstein’s most notable accusers.
The committee’s release of materials from Epstein’s estate has caused a rift within Congress. Democrats highlighted the birthday letter, which shows the outline of a naked woman’s body framing a typed message from “Donald,” as proof that Trump has not been truthful about the full extent of his connections to Epstein. The letter concludes with the phrase: “Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret” along with what appears to be Trump’s distinctive signature.
Trump has consistently denied composing the letter and initiated a defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report on the letter.
Republicans have largely downplayed the significance of these disclosures. Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky accused Democrats of “cherry-picking” from the available files. Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian Republican spearheading a bipartisan effort to compel the Justice Department to release all Epstein records, dismissed the birthday book as irrelevant, telling reporters Monday: “It doesn’t prove anything. Having a birthday card from Trump doesn’t help the survivors and the victims.”
Asked if Trump intended to meet with Epstein’s victims, Leavitt told reporters: “I don’t have any meetings for you to read out on that.”
She added that Democrats were “pretending to care about victims of crime” while disregarding broader issues of child exploitation. She alleged, “They are desperately trying to concoct a hoax to smear the President of the United States.”
This message aligns with Trump’s own portrayal of the situation. In July, he referred to the story as a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans, and foolish Republicans fall into the net.”
Soon after the birthday letter became public on Monday, Taylor Budowich, a White House’s communications aide, presented examples of Trump’s signature to argue the handwriting in the birthday letter is inconsistent.
