Wall Street Journal reports Trump once sent Jeffrey Epstein a 'bawdy' birthday letter

Donald Trump claims he didn’t know the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein well, but a bombshell report Thursday by The Wall Street Journal says he once sent Epstein a “bawdy” birthday letter featuring a drawing of a naked woman.

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The Journal reviewed an album of letters friends sent to Epstein for his 50^th birthday in 2003 at the behest of longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

“The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy — like others in the album,” the paper reports. “It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.” It ends with “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump told the Journal Tuesday that he did not write the letter or draw the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.

“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he added. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

He said he would sue the Journal if it published the story. The paper is owned by Trump supporter Rupert Murdoch, but it has not hesitated to report objectively on the president.

Epstein had long been accused of sexually abusing underage girls, with allegations that prominent friends of his had been involved as well. Epstein died in jail in 2019, having been charged with sex trafficking conspiracy. Maxwell is serving a prison sentence after being convicted of enabling him.

Even though Trump has claimed to be “not a fan” of Epstein, the two men with frequently photographed together in the 1980s and ’90s. And Trump told New York Magazine in 2002, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

A Trump spokesperson told the Journal in 2023 that Trump had barred Epstein from Mar-a-Lago at some point, without elaborating.

Democrats and Republicans alike, including some of Trump’s most right-wing supporters, have been calling for the release of the Epstein files. Attorney General Pam Bondi had promised to release them, only to backtrack this month, with the Department of Justice saying “it had found no ‘incriminating client list’ or additional documents that warrant public disclosure, the Journal notes.

The album of letters was assembled by earlier investigators of Epstein, and it's not clear if it was among the documents recently reviewed by the DOJ.

Trump has claimed some of the materials in the Epstein files were “made up” by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former FBI Director James Comey.