Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has called the Epstein birthday letter a "dead issue." Time to move on. However, more details are starting to leak out about the world's most famous birthday book. First of all, it is not a scrapbook with cards pasted onto the pages. It is a leather-bound book, three volumes long, running 238 pages, with sections "friends," "girlfriends," and "business." Ghislaine Maxwell, who produced it, is not a cheapskate, and knew Jeffrey would appreciate a quality present.
The book is loaded with sexually explicit language and images. Some of them portray (almost) naked young girls; others allude to violence. Maxwell wrote an introduction saying: "The idea behind the book was simply to gather stories and old photographs to jog your memory about places and people and different events."
The submissions came from Wall Street billionaires, a past president (Bill Clinton), women Epstein knew, and others. Some letters were light but others were aggressive and dark. One submission said: "We picked up girls on the beach. I tell them with knife in my hand to take suits off." Another letter writer wrote: "You began to realize that you could get away with sh**! That chicks and people in general were schmucks!"
A poem read: "Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically/With this net of fish, Jeff's now 'The Old Man and The Sea.'" One letter had an image labeled "1983" in which a man gives balloons to three girls in skirts and pigtails. In the next image the man is getting massages from topless blond women.
Trump denied the letter he signed is from him and sued The Wall Street Journal, which first reported it, for defamation. If the letter wasn't from him, the person who wrote it did an excellent job of forging Trump's signature. Maxwell would know who sent her that letter of course. Someone ought to ask her. Trump also said he didn't draw pictures, but he has often drawn pictures that were auctioned off by the charities he gave the pictures to.
This is not the first time in history the issue of a suspected forged signature has come up. People have been forging signatures (e.g., on checks) for hundreds of years. Just ask ASQDE, the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners. These are the pros who do forensic research into questioned documents. Actually, you don't need to ask them, because The Washington Post already did. The paper's staff talked to Thomas Vastrick, the president of ASQDE. He wasn't absolutely certain, but he did say "It's very consistent in letter design, slant, and letter height ratios. For someone to say it's not his handwriting or doesn't look like his handwriting, I don't know where they're coming from. It certainly does have the pictorial evidence of it."
Since the letter was published, reporters have been asking Republicans in Congress what they think about it. Most of them are saying that they haven't seen it, so they can't comment—despite the letter being on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, dozens of other publications and all over social media. Among others, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) say they haven't seen it. The members are apparently too busy legislating to have time to follow the news. We expect loads of new laws soon as a result. When exasperated reporters printed out copies and handed them out, members like Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said: "I don't know anything about it. I'm sure it is an unconfirmed rumor now." Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said the signature was a forgery done with an autopen.
In addition to the letter Trump signed, he is mentioned several other times in the book. In one image, Epstein is holding up a large novelty check signed by D.J. Trump with a note suggesting that Epstein had sold him "a fully depreciated woman for $22,500." The signature on the large check is not actually Trump's, though.
What comes next? By the end of September, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) will probably have enough signatures on his discharge petition to force the House to vote on a bill requiring the DoJ to release everything it has on Epstein. The Senate probably won't pass Massie's bill (although Rand Paul, R-KY, Josh Hawley, R-MO, and all the Democrats are "yeas"), but the vote will be embarrassing. There may not be a client list in the DoJ files, but Epstein's victims are compiling their own list. Also, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, wants to investigate the many large and mysterious transfers into Epstein's bank account. He claims that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent is blocking him.
Another development is the move by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He filed an amendment to the must-pass defense authorization bill. The amendment requires AG Pam Bondi to release all the Epstein files within 30 days of the bill becoming law. However, the Republicans voted to table the amendment to prevent a vote. (V)