Among the various bizarre issues Donald Trump and his administration have said and done vis-à-vis Jeffrey Epstein in current weeks is the president’s curious denial of writing the disgraced financier a lewd birthday letter 20 years in the past.
We knew Trump and Epstein were friends around this time. We additionally know Trump has mentioned plenty of lewd things.
But Trump not solely denied writing the letter, he additionally sued the Wall Street Journal over its preliminary report about it. He instructed another person may’ve written it and signed his identify.
That denial suffered another vital blow on Monday.
The House Oversight Committee acquired a replica of the “birthday book” containing the letter in question, and it matches the Journal’s description of the letter. It’s a web page lengthy and incorporates a silhouette of a girl’s physique with an apparently imagined dialog between Trump and Epstein contained in the drawing. Below it’s a signature line that characteristic’s Trump’s identify and a cursive “Donald” in an space made to seem like a girl’s pubic space.
The key reality right here is that this comes from Epstein’s property. In different phrases, for this letter to have been faux, somebody would have needed to plant it in Epstein’s possessions a very long time in the past, by some means.
Trump has referred to as the letter a “FAKE” and flatly denied authoring it. And loads of allies lined up behind that denial. Vice President JD Vance referred to as the Journal’s report “complete and utter bullshit.”
But even on the time, Trump’s denials had been shortly referred to as into query.
Part of Trump’s denial rested on the concept it wasn’t in his character to attract an image just like the one within the letter.
“I never wrote a picture in my life,” Trump mentioned at one level. “I don’t draw pictures,” he added at another.
But it wasn’t laborious to seek out doodles Trump had drawn across the similar time. In reality, Trump donated an autographed doodle every year to a charity. A charity director additionally told NCS that Trump offered two signed drawings in 2004. That would have been the yr after the 2003 birthday letter.
Further complicating Trump’s denials now could be the signature that’s appended to the letter.
After the letter was made publicly out there on Monday, the White House and outstanding Trump allies shortly claimed the signature didn’t seem like his. Some in contrast it with official signatures.
“Time for @newscorp to open that checkbook, it’s not his signature. DEFAMATION!” White House deputy chief of workers Taylor Budowich said on X, referring to the Journal’s father or mother firm.
“Is this really the best they could do? Trump has the most famous signature in the world,” pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson said.
“Does the below from the WSJ look like this actual signature from the President? I don’t think so at all. Fake,” fellow pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to allude to the identical declare, saying the picture of the letter by some means proves the Journal’s story fallacious.
“As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it,” Leavitt said.
But whereas Trump’s official signature typically seems extra jagged than the loopier “Donald” on the Epstein birthday letter, there are numerous examples of him signing his name in a similar way across the interval in query.
There’s a 1996 letter to then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. There’s a 1995 letter to a member of a neighborhood Palm Beach fee. There’s a 1999 letter to former NCS host Larry King. There’s a 1984 letter to the chief editor of the New York Times, A.M. Rosenthal. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on Monday produced a 2014 letter he acquired. There’s even an inscription from 1997 in a Trump book that Epstein owned.
All characteristic that loopier type, adopted by an extended tail coming off the ultimate “d” in Trump’s first identify.
It seems like Trump typically signed his identify on this method when the subject material was extra private — conditions wherein signing together with his first identify solely could be applicable.
If something, the signature seems to affirm the legitimacy of the letter. But Trump allies are apparently sticking to the declare, even after their assertions about Trump drawings already blew up of their faces.
In the grand scheme of issues, whether or not this letter was really from Trump wouldn’t appear to matter. What does it actually add to the document or inform us about him or his ties to Epstein?
But, for some motive, this was a battle that Trump selected. It could possibly be another merchandise in an extended list of poor decisions by his administration on Epstein.