White House officials on Tuesday doubled down on their assertion that a sexually suggestive letter carrying what appeared to be Donald Trump’s signature had not been signed by the president. The letter was included in a birthday book for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The letter, and its drawing of a naked woman’s torso around an imagined conversation between Mr Trump and Epstein, was part of a batch of documents released by the House oversight committee in response to a subpoena after its existence was first reported in July by the Wall Street Journal.
The release of the letter and the entirety of the birthday book only intensified a furore that Mr Trump has been attempting to shut down for months – and hardened the White House’s resolve to claim the purported Trump signature on the letter was a fabrication or a forgery.
At a press briefing, the US president’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denied Mr Trump’s involvement in the letter and added that the White House would support an expert review of the signature to determine whether it had been done by Mr Trump’s hand.
“Three separate signature analysts who said this was not the president’s authentic signature and we have maintained that all along,” said Ms Leavitt. “The president did not write this letter, he did not sign this letter and that’s why the president’s external legal team is pursuing litigation against the Wall Street Journal.”
Multiple White House officials have sought to distance Mr Trump from the 2003 note since it was released on Monday by suggesting the signature did not resemble recent examples showing Mr Trump, in recent years, signing both his first and last name in sharp, angular figures.
This image, subpoenaed from the Jeffrey Epstein estate by the House Oversight Committee, was released by Democrats on the panel on Monday. Photograph: The New York Times
But officials have declined to address the fact that before his time in office, Mr Trump regularly used only his first name in signatures, stylised with a line extending from the last letter – and Mr Trump’s signature on a letter from 1995 closely resembled the one found on the note to Epstein.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump declined to address the letter in an interview with NBC. “I don’t comment on something that’s a dead issue,” he said.
At the briefing that gave rise to questions concerning Epstein and the Trump letter on several separate occasions, Ms Leavitt also denied a claim by Republican House speaker Mike Johnson that Mr Trump had been an FBI informant against Epstein.
“I can affirm that is not true and I think the speaker was referring to the fact that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago property for reasons the president has already discussed,” Ms Leavitt said.
With the clamour over the Epstein files reignited on Capitol Hill following the release of the Epstein birthday book and other materials turned over to Congress by the lawyers for Epstein’s estate, the White House may yet face pressure to release the extent of the documents held by the justice department on the matter.
Despite staunch opposition from the White House and Republican leaders, a bipartisan resolution directing the justice department to release all of its investigative files on Epstein appears headed to gain enough backers to force action on the House floor, provided two Democrats win special elections later this month.
Over on Capitol Hill, top Republicans have joined the White House in alleging that it is not actually Mr Trump’s signature on a suggestive poem and drawing addressed to Jeffrey Epstein that was made public yesterday.
“The White House says it’s not true,” House speaker Mike Johnson told PBS News, adding that he has not seen the artwork from Epstein’s birthday book, which was released by Democrats on the House oversight committee.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied US president Donald Trump’s involvement in the letter to Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: EPA – European Pressphoto Agency
The Republican chair of the oversight committee, James Comer, who has been leading an investigation into Epstein and the justice department’s handling of allegations of sex trafficking against Epstein, said he did not plan to investigate the veracity of Mr Trump’s signature on the document.
“Twenty-two years ago was when that was allegedly sent. So, I don’t think the oversight committee is going to invest in looking up something that was 22 years ago,” Mr Comer told CNN.
Republican representative and oversight committee member Tim Burchett also doubted that Trump had made the drawing and signed it – even though Trump has a history of making sketches in thick black pen.
Mr Trump has repeatedly dismissed concerns about the wider collection of Epstein files, referring to it in general terms as a “Democrat hoax” despite having campaigned in 2024 on releasing the same Epstein files. After he took office in January, Mr Trump’s department of justice declared that no “client list” linking powerful individuals to Epstein’s crimes existed. – Guardian